A French woman and an American have tested positive for the hantavirus as passengers from the cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak have disembarked and are preparing to quarantine.
Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored within the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and respiratory masks escorted the travellers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that continued Monday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) really useful close monitoring of the previous passengers and the various countries quarantining them.
The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from greater than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was resulting from wrap up on Monday.
Three people have died for the reason that outbreak began and 6 people have been infected, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler told The Associated Press Monday. She said one person from the U.S. showed inconclusive lab results.
The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued an almost three-minute video message Monday praising passengers and crew for his or her perseverance.
“I’ve decided to take this time to thank each guest and crew member on board here in addition to our colleagues back home,” Dobrogowski began. “The past few weeks have been extremely difficult to us all, as I’m sure you understand. What moved me probably the most was your patience, discipline and likewise kindness that you just showed to one another.”
The captain said he witnessed everyone’s “caring, unity and quiet strength” on the MV Hondius through the hantavirus outbreak.
“I have to commend my crew for the courage and the selfless resolve that they showed again and again in probably the most difficult moments,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine sailing through these circumstances with a greater group of individuals, guests and crew alike.”
“Most significantly, our thoughts are with those which can be not with us. I do know whatever I say is not going to ease this loss. But I’d such as you to know [they] are with us day by day in our hearts and our thoughts,” the captain added of the passengers who died through the voyage resulting from the hantavirus outbreak.
Dobrogowski said in a situation just like the hantavirus outbreak, “every image and each word may be taken out of context,” which may be “very painful to the people on board.”
“Because the captain of Hondius, my job is to guide my crew, deal with my guests and see the ship safely to port. Our responsibility doesn’t end with our arrival within the Canaries. We’ve all been a component of this voyage and I wish nothing more to everybody, guests and crew alike, to have the opportunity to go home safely and in good health,” he added.
Dobrogowski asked for “privacy and respect to our guests and their families and the crew members during this difficult time.”
“We’ve sailed through this together across the ocean and now we hope to see everybody safely at home,” he concluded his video message.
British Columbia’s top doctor said the 4 passengers returning home from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship remain in a “critical period” on Sunday, but stressed she wouldn’t call them “patients” as they should not considered infected.
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Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters they will probably be monitoring the 4 passengers and ensuring they’re cared for through the minimum isolation period of 21 days.
“We all know as well the incubation period of this strain of the virus may be so long as six weeks, so we’re at actually a critical period,” she said. “We all know the median incubation period is about 15 to 18 days, so we’re still in a time period after we might even see more cases arise.”
She added the 4 people had exposure to the virus but have shown no symptoms.
“So we treat them as contacts, we hope that none of them are infected and that none of them will develop disease,” she added.
Henry said that she doesn’t expect the 4 Canadians to “keep in touch with the general public during this arrival process or during their isolation period.”
In line with Henry, the 21-day isolation period goes back to the last potential contact with any individual who had the virus, which is believed to be May 6.
Recent cases in France and United States
The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened within the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday.
The girl was amongst five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.
The 4 other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will probably be retested, Rist added. Health authorities said they’ve to date identified 22 hantavirus contact cases in France, in keeping with France 24.
One among 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for hantavirus but just isn’t showing any symptoms and one other had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said on Sunday.
The flight landed within the early hours of Monday morning and passengers were transferred to awaiting buses and driven away from the airport.
The American passengers will probably be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a quarantine facility, to evaluate whether or not they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.
“One passenger will probably be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who’s going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but doesn’t have symptoms,” Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network, told The Associated Press.
Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center were asked by federal partners to receive and monitor U.S. residents from the cruise ship.
“We’re prepared for situations exactly like this,” said Michael Ash, MD, CEO of Nebraska Medicine. “Our teams have trained for many years alongside federal and state partners to be sure we are able to safely provide care while protecting our staff and the broader community. We’re proud to support this national effort.”
John Lowe, director of the Global Center for Health Security, said that their role is to “provide a controlled, secure environment where people may be monitored and, if needed, cared for using the very best safety standards.”
“We work closely with national partners to make sure every step, from transport, to monitoring, to potential treatment, is handled with precision and care,” he added.
Ash said that the general public should know that these facilities “were specifically designed to forestall exposure to the general public.”
“There is no such thing as a risk to the community from people being cared for in these units,” he added.
The WHO recommends a 42-day quarantine and “lively monitoring” of high-risk contacts.
“Current evidence doesn’t support routine laboratory testing of contacts for outbreak control (or public health response) or the quarantine of low-risk contacts,” the organization’s advice added. “Low-risk contacts should undertake passive self-monitoring and seek medical evaluation if symptoms occur. Recommendations are dynamic and will probably be adapted as more evidence emerges.”
Health officials say risk to public is low
Hantavirus normally spreads from rodent droppings and just isn’t easily transmitted between people. However the Andes virus detected within the cruise ship outbreak may have the opportunity to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which may include fever, chills and muscle aches — normally show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that most people mustn’t be nervous concerning the outbreak.
“This just isn’t one other COVID. And the danger to the general public is low. So that they shouldn’t be scared, and so they shouldn’t panic,” he added.
WHO is recommending that passengers’ home countries “have lively monitoring and follow-up, which implies every day health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the organization’s top epidemiologist.
When asked last week if the hantavirus outbreak is comparable to the “early days or perhaps weeks of the coronavirus pandemic,” Van Kerkhove said, “This just isn’t coronavirus.”
“It is a very different virus. We all know this virus. Hantavirus has been around for quite some time. There’s a number of detail that we all know,” she said on Thursday. “I need to be unequivocal here: this just isn’t SARS-CoV-2. This just isn’t the beginning of a COVID pandemic. That is an outbreak that we see on a ship.”
Van Kerkhove said the outbreak took place in a “confined area.”
“We’ve five confirmed cases to date. We completely understand why these questions are coming and we try to offer all of the knowledge that we are able to,” she continued. “We’re grateful for all of those that are asking some of these questions but this just isn’t the identical situation we were in six years ago.”
Hantavirus doesn’t spread the identical way as COVID-19, in keeping with Van Kerkhove.
“Most hantaviruses don’t transmit between people in any respect. Most hantaviruses are transmitted from rodents or their feces or their saliva of their droppings to people. And only this one particular virus, the Andes virus, which has been identified here, we’ve seen some human-to-human transmission,” Van Kerkhove explained.
“There’s rather a lot that’s being done straight away to have the opportunity to reduce the danger even further,”Van Kerkhove added.
Those passengers involved with or caring for suspected cases should “wear a better level of private protective equipment,” she added.
Van Kerkhove said the variety of cases may rise as contact tracing continues, however the Andes hantavirus normally only spreads through close human-to-human contact.
“This just isn’t COVID, this just isn’t influenza; it spreads very, very in a different way,” she said.
The Andes strain is present in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile, in keeping with the WHO. So far, it’s the only form of hantavirus wherein human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, normally through close contact, similar to by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.
Death rates vary based on which hantavirus causes the illness. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is fatal in about 35 per cent of individuals infected, while the death rate for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome varies from one per cent to fifteen per cent of patients, in keeping with the CDC.
Since 1989, there have been 109 confirmed cases and 27 deaths in Canada resulting from a hantavirus infection, the federal government of Canada reports.
—With files from Global News’ Sean Previl and The Associated Press