At least two people have been infected with hantavirus on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic.
The virus, which has a high fatality rate, is usually spread to humans by contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.
Three cruise passengers have died in recent weeks, including one later confirmed to have hantavirus.
The ship was travelling from Argentina to the Canary Islands, and is anchored off Cape Verde in West Africa, but has not been allowed to dock.
The SMC asked a local expert on hantavirus to comment. Update 11/05 : recent comments are also available from our colleagues in Spain and the UK.
Professor David Hayman, infectious diseases expert at Massey University, comments:
“It’s quite rare for hantaviruses to spread from human to human – that’s already been reported a lot.
“I can understand the concern, I wouldn’t want to be on that ship, but the thought is that it takes quite close contact for there to be human-to-human transmission, if it does happen. There’s some debate about that. I think the evidence is there is human-to-human transmission for some hantaviruses. There is a particular outbreak of an Andes virus which has some similarities to this. Obviously being on a cruise ship increases the risk of close contact. That said, in theory, it should be relatively easy to control because these infections are not necessarily that transmissible among people.
“The real worry though, is that these infections have a high case fatality rate. The people that do get sick are at high risk of death, unfortunately.
“The interesting thing about this particular case, and it’s no comfort to people on the ship, is that the one hantavirus that does seem to spread from human to human has been reported from Argentina. It’s not clear how the hantavirus got on the ship – my understanding is that the ship originated from Argentina – so that’s another reason why people need to be really careful, but hopefully the ship’s doctors are able to get good advice about personal isolation and hygiene.
“We’ve all just lived through a pandemic – we’re still in that pandemic, really – so we’re well aware of what PPE means, and how to manage and reduce the risk of human-to-human transmission. Hopefully we can take some of the lessons from COVID and apply them here.”
Conflict of interest statement: “No conflicts.”