A cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak is still days away from docking, as global health officials said two Britons who were medically evacuated are improving.
A British passenger, understood to be a 69-year-old man, was taken to South Africa on April 27 and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Another Briton, Martin Anstee, 56, was taken off the MV Hondius on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive specialist medical care.
The boat left the shores of Cape Verde at 6.15pm UK time on Wednesday, Oceanwide Expeditions said, and is estimated to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday but this is subject to change.
The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight so the remaining Britons on board the ship who are not displaying symptoms can be repatriated once they dock in Tenerife.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, from the World Health Organisation (WHO), said two patients – known to include a Briton – remain in hospital in the Netherlands, and another Briton is in intensive care in South Africa.
She told a WHO press briefing: “I am very happy to say the patient in South Africa is doing better, and the two patients in the Netherlands we hear are stable. So that is actually very good news.”
The WHO said morale has improved on board since the ship started its journey to Tenerife.
It said two doctors are on board along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who are conducting a medical assessment of all passengers and crew.
While the risk to the public is low, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said there could be more cases due to the incubation period of the Andes virus – the variant of hantavirus linked to the outbreak.
The WHO is not expecting the outbreak to be an epidemic, according to Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, director at the alert and response co-ordination department.
He highlighted a similar outbreak in Argentina in 2018/19 which led to 34 cases.
It emerged earlier that seven British people disembarked from the ship mid-way through the cruise, along with a woman who later died.
A total of 29 people left the ship when it docked in the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.
The woman was accompanying her husband’s body, which was being repatriated after he died on the ship on April 11.
Oceanwide Expeditions said guests who disembarked have been contacted.
On Wednesday, the ECDC said everyone on board should be considered a “close contact”.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that two Britons who had already returned from the vessel are isolating at home.
These passengers flew back to the UK via Johannesburg after getting off in St Helena.
Some 19 British nationals were listed as passengers on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members.
UK health experts said British passengers on board will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days.
According to the UKHSA, none of the British citizens on board are reporting symptoms but they are being closely monitored.
Asked about the two British passengers who have returned to the UK, Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, added that contact tracing is happening for anyone who may have sat next to them on the flight home.
The outbreak, which has been linked to three deaths, has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.
Three people were taken off the ship on Wednesday to the Netherlands for treatment, including Mr Anstee.
The Associated Press reported the Argentine government’s hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a birdwatching outing in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
