A flight attendant who was not onboard the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak has tested negative for the virus, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Public health officials may breathe a sigh of relief at the news, which dampens fears that the virus has already spread beyond passengers who were on the Hondius cruise ship. The flight attendant was undergoing tests at a hospital in the Netherlands.
So far three people have died during the outbreak, including an unidentified Dutch woman who left the ship on April 24. She died shortly after being removed from a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam. Weeks earlier, the woman’s husband died at sea. A German national has also died.
On Friday, British authorities confirmed a new suspected case on the tiny Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth with about 220 permanent residents.
The U.K. Health Security Agency offered no additional details on that suspected infection and whether the patient was on board the Hondius, but it added that two additional British nationals have now been confirmed to have the virus, which is typically contracted through contact with rodents. Person-to-person transmission is rare, though officials say it is possible through close personal contact.
Hantaviruses are a family of viruses which can cause serious illness and death, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
In its last update on Thursday, the World Health Organization said there have been five confirmed cases of the virus and three suspected cases, as countries around the world seek to trace and monitor passengers who left the Hondius at points along its voyage.
At least seven Americans who were onboard the vessel are isolating at home across five states, and none show any symptoms of the virus, according to local health officials.
A WHO investigation is underway to find the source of the outbreak of hantavirus, which is rare but endemic in parts of Argentina where the Hondius began its voyage.
Meanwhile, the Hondius is on a three-to-four-day journey north from Cape Verde in western Africa to the Canary Islands ahead of its planned docking on the island of Tenerife on Sunday, when the WHO, alongside Dutch, British and Spanish officials, will collaborate in the evacuation and testing of the remaining passengers.
The U.K. health agency said all British passengers will be asked to isolate for 45 days upon returning to the U.K., highlighting that the incubation period of the disease is up to six weeks.
The WHO and health officials in numerous countries have stressed that the risk of the outbreak affecting wider populations is low and that hantavirus is only transmissible through close contact, unlike airborne diseases such as Covid-19.
WHO epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove commented to pleas for help from online streamers during a hantavirus outbreak. “We are working with many, including everybody on board, to ensure not only do they have medical support… but also providing some psychosocial support as well.”
