Cruise nightmare — virus-linked ship arrives in Rotterdam
MV Hondius docks in Rotterdam for disinfection after a seven-week voyage linked to 11 hantavirus cases and three deaths
The cruise ship MV Hondius has docked in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for disinfection, bringing an end to a seven-week voyage overshadowed by a rare hantavirus outbreak.
The ship arrived on Monday morning after travelling about 8,500 miles. The outbreak has been linked to 11 confirmed or suspected infections and three deaths, prompting health authorities around the world to monitor the situation closely.
Only Captain Jan Dobrogowski and 26 crew members remained on board when the vessel reached the Dutch port. Most passengers, including 18 Americans, are being sent into quarantine in their home countries.
The MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, in southern Argentina, on April 1 with nearly 150 passengers and crew on a nature cruise covering some of the world’s most remote islands.
The World Health Organisation is investigating the source of the outbreak. An initial theory is that the first infected passenger may have contracted the virus from rodents during a birdwatching trip.
So far, nine laboratory-confirmed cases have been found among people who had been on the Hondius, with two more suspected cases.
The incubation period for hantavirus can last up to six weeks. A Canadian passenger tested positive last week and is being treated in hospital. Like other patients, the passenger was infected with the Andes strain, which can spread from person to person.
Other passengers, including Americans, are now quarantining at home or in hotels after leaving the ship on May 10 in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, near Morocco.
The ship had earlier been stranded off Cape Verde in West Africa after authorities there refused to allow it to dock.
Hantavirus is endemic in parts of South America but remains very rare in humans. The outbreak is also unusual because no previous case had been recorded on a cruise ship.
