23 Cruise Passengers Exposed to Hantavirus Return Home, Including to US

At least 23 passengers from a hantavirus-infected cruise ship left the vessel during a stop at Saint Helena on April 23 and returned home to countries including the United States, Australia, Taiwan, Britain, the Netherlands and others before they were informed of their potential exposure to the deadly virus.

One of those passengers, a Swiss man who returned with his wife, came down with symptoms on Wednesday and was taken to a Zurich hospital. He initially tested negative for the virus, which can lie dormant for up to eight weeks. The passengers did not realize they had been exposed when they disembarked during the luxury boat's two-day stop in the British territory.

A passenger still aboard the ship told Spanish newspaper El Pais that until three days ago no one had contacted the dispersed travelers. " The first known case was a 70-year-old Dutchman who fell ill on April 6 and died on April 11. His wife, who also showed symptoms, disembarked with him in Saint Helena along with the nearly two dozen other passengers.

She later died at a Johannesburg hospital. Argentine investigators believe the Dutch couple brought the virus onboard after picking it up from rodents during a bird-watching tour in Ushuaia in mid-March. Authorities had previously said the area and surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a hantavirus case.

A third passenger has died and at least eight others have become sick while onboard the vessel, which remains anchored off Cape Verde while waiting to port in the Canary Islands. On Wednesday three patients — a 56-year-old British national, a 41-year-old Dutch citizen and a 65-year-old German — believed to be infected were evacuated from the ship and taken for medical attention in the Netherlands.

The disease usually spreads through contact with mouse or rat feces or urine. However the World Health Organization suspects the boat carries a rare strain capable of spreading human-to-human with a mortality rate of up to 40 percent. That strain is known as the Andes virus.

The passengers were only informed of the outbreak days ago. The World Health Organization did not begin contacting those who had left until three days ago despite the first passenger getting sick on April 6, according to the passenger who spoke to El Pais.

The organization said the ship's operating company had recently emailed departed passengers about the health event. Officials said they had been in contact with those who left the ship at different points. Nearly two dozen passengers ditched the voyage and headed back to their home countries almost two weeks ago.

Hantavirus infections are rare but serious. The World Health Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the timeline of notifications or the current status of contact tracing for those who returned to the United States and other countries.