Algerian Radio
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Tuesday evening that it is taking steps to track down over 80 passengers who shared a flight with a Dutch cruise ship passenger infected with hantavirus. The woman was medically evacuated from the island of St. Helena to Johannesburg, where she died in the hospital.
The 69-year-old Dutch woman—whose 70-year-old husband died aboard the ship—disembarked in St. Helena on April 24 "with gastrointestinal symptoms." She boarded a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, the following day, according to the WHO.
She passed away on April 26, and her hantavirus infection was confirmed this past Monday. "Efforts have been launched to trace the passengers" on that flight, the organization added in a press release.
Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO's Department of Prevention and Preparedness, stated that the organization suspects "human-to-human transmission among individuals in very close contact."
There is only one weekly flight connecting Johannesburg to this remote South Atlantic island, and the journey takes approximately four hours.
South African authorities have instructed the airline to notify the affected passengers that they must contact the Ministry of Health if they have not yet been reached, added Karin Murray.
The vessel suspected of being the source of the hantavirus outbreak, the MV Hondius, is scheduled to depart the Cape Verde archipelago in the coming hours, following the medical evacuation of two sick crew members and one other individual.
