French woman with hantavirus has severe form of disease, 'in last stage of supportive care'
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A French woman who contracted the deadly hantavirus on a cruise ship is seriously ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at a Paris hospital treating the sick passenger said Tuesday. The outbreak of the disease has reached a total of 11 reported cases, nine of which have been confirmed.
Three people died on the cruise, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first to be exposed to the virus while visiting South America.
The French passenger hospitalized in Paris has a serious illness that has caused lung and heart problems that put his life at risk, said Dr. Xavier Lescure, specialist in infectious diseases at Bichat Hospital.
He said the woman is on a life support machine that pumps blood through an artificial lung, gives it oxygen and returns it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them time to recover. Lescure called it “the last phase of supportive care.”
Hondius returns to the Netherlands
With the evacuation of all passengers and most of the crew completed, the MV Hondius is now returning to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that confirmed and suspected cases were only reported from passengers or crew of the cruise ship.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said there have been no deaths from hantavirus since May 2, and that all suspected and confirmed cases linked to the cruise ship were “isolated and controlled” under strict medical supervision.
“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the beginning of a major outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO. “However, the situation can change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it is possible that we will see more cases in the coming weeks.”
The latest confirmed case is a Spanish passenger who tested positive for hantavirus after being disembarked, Spain's Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The passenger was placed in isolation at a military hospital in Madrid.
1st cruise ship cruise hantavirus outbreak
Health authorities say this is the first case of hantavirus on a cruise ship. Although there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improve survival rates.
The Ministry of Health in Argentina said on Tuesday that a team of scientific experts will be sent in the coming days to investigate the origin of the outbreak of the disease.
The Dutch couple, identified by the WHO as the first passengers infected with the hantavirus, spent several months in Argentina and neighboring South American countries before boarding the ship. The husband and wife later died.
As Canadian passengers from the MV Hondius ship that contracted the hantavirus return home alone, there are concerns about the possible spread of the disease. On The National, Erica Johnson puts viewers' questions to infectious disease expert Dr. Lynora Saxinger.
Argentine officials said the couple went on a bird-watching trip that included a stop at a garbage dump where they may have been exposed to infected rats. The Ministry of Health said its team will investigate the garbage dump and other places the couple visited where rats known to be infected with the virus were found, although local officials in the province where the ship departed disputed the idea that it originated there.
A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew members were escorted from the ship to the shore in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, by crews wearing full-body protective gear and breathing masks in a carefully planned effort that ended Monday night.
Two planes arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven overnight carrying Dutch nationals as well as passengers from Australia and New Zealand and workers from the Philippines. All have been placed in isolation, according to the Dutch government.
Some crew members are staying on board and planning a trip to the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.
Hantavirus is usually spread from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between humans. But the Andes virus found in the cruise ship outbreak can spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms – which can include fever, chills and muscle aches – usually appear between one and eight weeks after exposure.
The WHO chief, Tedros, has advised that returning passengers should stay in isolation, either at their homes or in other facilities, for 42 days. He added that the WHO cannot enforce its guidelines, and that different countries can manage the monitoring of passengers without symptoms in different ways.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch breaks down how contact tracing works at the international, national and local level in situations like the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Dutch hospital staff are in isolation
Twelve workers at the Dutch hospital where the Hondius passenger was treated must be quarantined for six weeks after mishandling bodily fluids, the Radboud University Medical Center said in a statement Monday night.
“The risk of infection is low,” the hospital said, but it required a dozen workers to be isolated as a precaution.
A hospital in the eastern city of Nijmegen received a passenger last week from one of the evacuation flights that arrived in the Netherlands, and this person has tested positive for hantavirus.
The patient's blood and urine should have been handled “according to strict procedures,” the hospital said.
