Hondius passenger treated in Nijmegen hospital; Deceased couple traveled for months
Radboudumc is treating a passenger from the Hondious cruise ship who may be infected with the hantavirus, the Nijmegen hospital confirmed. It’s unclear whether this is the person who arrived at Schiphol on a second medical evacuation flight on Thursday morning. The Frisian couple who died from the virus was traveling in South America for months before boarding the cruise, RTL Nieuws reported.
According to Radboudumc, there is no risk of infection for staff or other patients at the hospital. “Appropriate isolation measures have been taken on the ward where the patient has been admitted to prevent spread,” the hospital said. The Hondius passenger is under the care of a “team specialized and trained in treating patients with dangerous infectious diseases.”
The hospital would not comment on whether this patient is the one to arrive at Schiphol on Thursday morning, “with regard to privacy.”
Three people were evacuated from the Hondius on two medical flights on Wednesday: a Dutch national (41), a British national (56), and a German national (65). The first plane, carrying two passengers, landed on Wednesday evening. These two passengers were taken to Leiden University Medical Center and a hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany. The other flight landed on Thursday. Dutch ambulances awaited the patient, but the health authorities did not say where the person would go.
The patient in Germany is believed to be a 65-year-old German woman who is closely related to one of the three passengers on the cruise ship who died. The German emergency services said that she was in a stable condition and showing no symptoms of the hantavirus.
The patient taken to Leiden University Medical Center is a 56-year-old British man, Hondius crew member Martin Anstee. He told Sky News that he was feeling okay, but was still being tested for the virus. He is in isolation in the Leiden hospital. That means the third patient was the 41-year-old Dutchman, also a crew member on the Hondius.
The hantavirus outbreak started on the Dutch cruise ship. Three passengers died last month, including the couple from Friesland, both aged 69. The Dutchman died of an apparent respiratory disease on board the cruise ship on April 11; his wife died in a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 26.
The shipping company sounded the alarm last week when another ill passenger, a British national who was receiving intensive care at a hospital in Johannesburg, tested positive for the hantavirus. The Dutch woman, who had already died by that point, was also tested for the virus, and the results came back positive.
The South African health authorities have confirmed that both the Dutch woman and the British man were infected with the Andes variant of the hantavirus, a dangerous variant that can spread between people. Hantaviruses typically spread to humans from rat and mouse droppings and urine, but not from person to person. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight people may have been infected so far.
The Dutchman is believed to be the source of the outbreak on the ship, as he was the first person to start showing symptoms. Argentina has started testing rodents in the south of the country, as a precaution. But the Argentine Ministry of Health said that the couple had been traveling all over South America before they boarded the Hondius on April 1.
According to RTL Nieuws, the Dutch couple has been traveling since late last year, arriving in Argentina as early as November 27. They traveled through the country by car for weeks, crossing the border into Chile early this year. In the months that followed, they traveled through both Chilean and Argentine provinces, and also visited Uruguay.
At the end of March, they returned to Patagonia and boarded the Hondius in Ushuaia a few days later. The ship then departed for a weeks-long journey to Cape Verde, where it arrived earlier this week.
About 150 people are still on board the Hondius, including 10 Dutch. The ship departed from the coast of Cape Verde last night and is en route to the Canary Island of Tenerife. It is expected to dock there on Saturday.
