Spain opens port to hantavirus-hit cruise ship as rare Andes strain confirmed

Madrid steps in to help the MV Hondius, a luxury cruise ship at the centre of an international health scare

A ⁠luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly ⁠hantavirus outbreak and marooned for days off the coast ⁠of Cabo Verde with close to 150 people on board was due to head to Spain, while South Africa confirmed it identified among the victims a strain of the virus that can – in rare cases – spread among humans.

And the Swiss government said a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the MV Hondius was infected with the hantavirus and was ‌being treated in Zurich. It said there was no danger to the broader population.

A Dutch couple and a German national who had been on the ship have died, while a British national was in intensive care in South Africa. The Netherlands was preparing to evacuate three patients who are on board.

Since the start of the outbreak, the World Health Organization has stressed that the risk to the broader public was low.

People were usually infected by hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, their droppings or their saliva. Human-to-human transmission ⁠was rare.

But a limited spread among close contacts has been observed in some previous outbreaks with the Andes strain, which has spread in South America, including ‌Argentina, where the ship departed on April 1.