Hantavirus cruise scare — Dutch hospital quarantines 12 staff

A Dutch hospital has quarantined 12 medical workers for six weeks after a hantavirus patient from the MV Hondius cruise ship was handled under procedures that were not considered strict enough for the virus strain involved, Reuters reported.

Radboudumc hospital in Nijmegen said in a statement that the risk of infection was very low and that patient care was continuing without disruption.

The quarantine highlights the challenges facing hospitals and other facilities as they move quickly to comply with strict protocols in responding to the hantavirus strain linked to an outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The World Health Organization has raised the number of confirmed cases to nine, up by two from the previous day.

The WHO director-general said more infections could still be reported because of the virus’s long incubation period, but stressed that the situation was not a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19.

The virus can be fatal, but it does not spread easily from person to person.

Radboudumc admitted one hantavirus patient from the MV Hondius on May 7.

“What happened was that procedures were followed strictly, but not the strictest procedures used for cases involving this type of hantavirus,” Dutch Health Minister Sophie Hermans told parliament.

“The chance that staff have been infected is small, but because we know we are dealing with a serious virus, the hospital said we must err on the side of caution,” she said.

She added: “The situation is very different from Covid. We have knowledge, and with the measures being taken, we are confident that this virus can be controlled.”

After the last group of passengers disembarked in Spain’s Canary Islands, the Hondius sailed for the Netherlands late on Monday night, May 11, with 25 crew members, one doctor and one nurse on board, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, the vessel’s owner.

The company expects the ship to arrive in the Netherlands by May 17.

Since the outbreak began on the cruise ship, three people have died from hantavirus.

In addition to the nine confirmed cases, the WHO has acknowledged two suspected cases. One person died before testing could be carried out, while another was on Tristan da Cunha, a remote island in the South Atlantic that lacks testing capacity.

So far, both suspected cases are considered to have been infected either on board the ship or before boarding.