The tragic and fatal outbreak of hantavirus onboard a luxury cruise ship highlights the gaps in research and treatments for the rare and mysterious infection—including how the virus spreads among people. The fatal outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship is a tragic case study in how pathogens in this mysterious family of viruses spread among people. Little is known about the mechanisms of human-to-human transmission, experts say, largely because of how rare such outbreaks are.
“This is kind of a unique opportunity to try to understand what the virus is doing,” says Alison Kell, a virologist at the University of New Mexico. The World Health Organization says it suspects human-to-human transmission is driving the outbreak, which has seen at least eight people onboard the MV Hondius become sickened or die with a suspected or confirmed case of hantavirus. Several of these individuals have been identified as infected with the Andes virus, which is the only type of hantavirus known to be capable of human-to-human transmission. Hantavirus typically spreads when humans come into contact with infected rodents and their urine or feces. The outbreak currently plaguing the Hondius is only the second confirmed outbreak where hantavirus was transmitted from person to person. In 2018, 34 people were infected and 11 died in an outbreak that started at a party in Argentina. Prior to that, there had been reports of human-to-human spread, but researchers couldn’t rule out that they had both been exposed to rodents, Kell says.
Three people have died as a result of the infection, which can cause fluid buildup in the lungs and hemorrhagic fever, among other symptoms. Another three, including the ship’s doctor, have been medically evacuated to receive treatment in the Netherlands. And a passenger who was on the ship and disembarked on Saint Helena has also tested positive for the virus and is receiving treatment at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.