Authorities seek to trace passengers who disembarked before outbreak was detected
Three people have died
Ship heading to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands
Human-to-human transmission is uncommon
Dutch media says air stewardess in contact with passenger taken to hospital
The woman was a passenger on the same flight as a patient who died in Johannesburg after travelling on the MV Hondius cruise ship and contracting the virus, Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters.
Authorities have identified the Andes strain of hantavirus on the ship, a version that can spread from human to human in rare cases, typically only after close contact.
The woman has “mild respiratory symptoms” and is being transferred to a hospital in the city of Alicante where she will be tested for the virus, with results expected 24 to 48 hours later, according to a statement on the regional health department’s website.
Padilla said the woman, a resident of Alicante in the Valencia region, was sitting two rows behind the cruise ship passenger, but the contact between them “was brief” since the passenger had only been “on board for a short time” during the flight.
Padilla added that Valencia’s regional health authorities were tracing the people the woman has been in contact with over the past few days.
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Meanwhile, another suspected case of hantavirus was identified in a British national on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha on Friday, as efforts continue to trace passengers of the luxury cruise.
The British health security agency did not disclose further details of the new suspected case on the world’s remotest inhabited island, home to only around 200 people, where the cruise ship made a stop on April 15.
Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in the outbreak on the MV Hondius.
Four others confirmed to be infected, two Britons, a Dutch and a Swiss national, are being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland.
A Dutch woman died shortly after she had left the ship on April 24. She was the wife of ‘patient zero’, the Dutch man who died on the ship on April 11.
The World Health Organisation said it would provide an update on the latest suspected and confirmed case numbers later on Friday.
The two Irish people on board the ship are “safe and well”, Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee has said.
Speaking in County Armagh on Friday, Ms McEntee said: In terms of the two Irish passengers, I am pleased to say that they are safe and well.”
She said her team has been “engaging directly with them” and also with the Health Service Executive (HSE) to see what measures “would need to be taken when they do get home”.
She added: “But obviously the priority is to make sure that they can get home as quickly as possible, and we’re working with them and engaging with them.”
It is a “very difficult situation” for the families of those who have died, Ms McEntee said “and for all of those on board”.
The boat left Cape Verde on Wednesday and is expected to arrive at a port in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday, but this is subject to change.
Experts believe the incubation period for the virus in the human body can extend to six weeks.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is not expecting the outbreak to be an epidemic.
Ireland has not yet set a specific duration for quarantine, but the HSE says self-isolation will take place “for a period” and that passengers will be actively monitored.
A HSE spokesperson said passengers will receive “optimal patient care and safety” and that all measures are being taken to “protect broader public health.” The HSE said decisions on where passengers will quarantine will be made on a case by case basis and if they become symptomatic they will be assessed and treated as appropriate.
There are understood to be two Irish passengers on board, and they have not been affected.
Dutch health authorities said on Thursday two people who had been close to the woman before she was taken off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25, due to her deteriorating medical condition, had tested negative for the virus.
Among them was a flight attendant who had been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam with symptoms of a possible infection, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.
The Dutch public health institute said it was still waiting on clear test results for the third case on Friday.
Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but the strain identified in the passengers of the Hondius can in rare cases be transmitted person-to-person.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the hantavirus outbreak as ‘level 3’ emergency response, the lowest level of emergency activation.
Other experts have also stressed the low probability of a widespread contagion, but the outbreak has put authorities on high alert as they urge all who have been in contact with passengers who left the Hondius before the outbreak was reported to be mindful of possible symptoms.
Several U.S. states have said they are monitoring asymptomatic residents who had returned home after disembarking from the cruise ship.
Singapore on Thursday isolated and tested two residents who had been aboard the ship.
Cruise operator Oceanwide on Thursday said there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship, which was expected to dock in Tenerife in the Canary Islands early on Sunday.
The WHO has said it was working on step-by-step guidance for when the dozens of passengers remaining on the ship disembark and travel home.
The British health service said nationals on board who are not displaying symptoms will be flown back home and asked to isolate for 45 days.
The HSE said the situation is “evolving” and is being closely monitored by the Department of Health, the HSE National Health Protection Office (NHPO), the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the WHO, and colleagues in Northern Ireland. It said no passengers are currently symptomatic, and public health protocols will be followed once the ship docks.
The NHPO is preparing follow up care for the two Irish nationals, if needed. “Decisions with regarding repatriation will be taken depending on tier medical status, folliwng public health guidance,” the HSE said.
The NHPO’s National Incidence Management Team has been activated to coordinate the public health response.
The Taoiseach has said the Government will do everything possible to make sure Irish citizens on a hantavirus-hit cruise ship get home safely, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Micheál Martin said health authorities are “working actively” to bring the Irish citizens home.
Asked if they will have to quarantine he said: “Health Service Executive and public health protocols will apply. Obviously, quarantine and isolation will be part of that.”
He added: “We have a duty of care to our citizens, we want our citizens to come back in a safe way, and we will do everything possible to facilitate that. That’s our obligation.”
He said the ship is due to dock in Tenerife “shortly”, adding that “we’ll see progress from then onwards and that’s important”.