MV Hondius cruise ship at center of suspected deadly hantavirus outbreak refused permission to dock

The luxury MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak has been refused permission to dock in the West African island nation of Cape Verde, officials said Monday.

Roughly 150 people are currently trapped on the Dutch cruise liner off the African coast after three passengers died and others became seriously sick with symptoms.

The ship, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica, had requested help from local health authorities on Sunday following the latest death.

So far, no one has yet been allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise said.

Authorities in Cape Verde, for their part, said they had not allowed the Dutch-flagged ship to dock as a precaution, citing the “aim of protecting national public health.”

Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in recent weeks following the suspected hantavirus outbreak.

Medics are now also working to try to evacuate at least two people with symptoms of the deadly virus.

It’s a two tier test - the first as I said is for HV antibodies, the second is current and specific to the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). I had the first but not the second and, if the second was positive, those results are reported to the CDC. The test can not be used to diagnose hantavirus early on as the results take two weeks to be reported and waiting that long for treatment would mean the patient likely already died. In my case, blood samples were taken at the local hospital in New Mexico and again at the hospital in Lubbock. Both had the same result.

People with hantavirus infections can initially feel flu-like symptoms for roughly three to six days and then start to have fluid in and around their lungs. So physicians immediately need to begin treatment if a patient has the symptoms and could have been exposed.

In the case of Betsy Arakawa, Gene Hackman’s wife, she consulted a private physician the morning of February 12 for flu-like symptoms and set up an appointment for that afternoon. She never made the visit and, based on being found on the bathroom floor with an open Tylenol bottle, likely died later that day.

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