A person who contracted hantavirus has recalled the ‘torture’ of battling the deadly disease for 3 weeks in hospital.
Lorne Warburton was placed on life support after he picked up the virus in 2023.
He described the experience as ‘hell on earth’ and said the initial symptoms were just like those steadily reported by Covid patients, including fatigue, head and body aches.
Nonetheless, it soon became apparent Mr Warburton had contracted something else entirely.
Mr Warburton, from Canada, told the BBC he was ‘drenched in sweat’ and was left unable to breathe after quickly developing hantavirus symptoms.
His story comes as three British nationals have to this point been confirmed with the disease following an outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship.
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The UKHSA confirmed on Friday that one other Brit had presented symptoms while on Tristan da Cunha within the archipelago of St Helena.
Two more suspected cases are being treated in hospital, while two British passengers are currently self-isolating within the UK after leaving the ship.
A complete of seven British nationals were among the many 29 passengers who left the MV Hondius when it docked in St Helena on April 24, which included a Dutch woman who died after contracting the virus.
The ship is predicted to dock in Tenerife on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the UKHSA said officials can be readily available to direct British nationals to a dedicated repatriation flight.
The agency said: ‘UK government staff will probably be on the bottom able to support the British nationals disembarking.
‘British passengers and ship crew not displaying any symptoms of hantavirus will probably be escorted by UK Government staff to an airport and given free passage back to the UK.’
It added: ‘Public health and infectious disease specialists from UKHSA and the NHS will probably be on board to watch British nationals whilst on the flight, to be certain that preventative measures are in place and to offer any care within the unlikely event that any passengers grow to be unwell on the flight.’
Experts imagine the incubation period for the virus may be as much as six weeks, and the WHO doesn’t anticipate the outbreak will grow to be an epidemic.
Professor Sir Peter Horby, the director of pandemic sciences at Oxford University, said: ‘In fact, we’d like to research and thoroughly monitor the situation to identify any divergence from how we expect this virus to behave, but to this point the virus is behaving in a way we all know it will possibly.
‘We all know there may be limited person-to-person transmission following close and prolonged contact with an infected person, but that public health measures can readily stop transmission and produce the outbreak to an end.’
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