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I've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius.

My story is here (and some threaded thoughts coming):
science.org/content/article/cr…

#hantavirus #cruise #science

#science #cruise #hantavirus

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in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
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Kai Kupferschmidt
• •
1) This is a fascinating example of what an outbreak in a globalized world can look like: 149 people from 23 countries on a Dutch-flagged ship traveling from Argentina to Spain (Canary Islands) via several other places that is now in international waters off Cabo Verde...
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
mastodon - Link to source
Kai Kupferschmidt
• •
It's worth thinking about what that means in terms of coordination and logistics. Tracing contacts of people across different continents, managing the evacuation of patients from the ship or deciding where it can dock etc...
It's almost like the world needs a world health organization... 🤓
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
mastodon - Link to source
Kai Kupferschmidt
• •
And an outbreak could also be missed because of the fragmentation. In this case: The first patient died on the ship on April 11, and his wife disembarked with the body on the island of Saint Helena to return to the Netherlands. She only made it til South Africa and died there.
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
mastodon - Link to source
Kai Kupferschmidt
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The next patient got sick and received treatment on Ascension Island and was then evacuated from there to South Africa. It was someone in the UK involved in this (Ascension Island is an overseas territory) that contacted a colleague in South Africa which ultimately led to the diagnosis.
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
mastodon - Link to source
Kai Kupferschmidt
• •
2) While you may think: A cruise ship. Again! Of course!
This outbreak is really unusual in that hantaviruses generally do not transmit from human to human and an outbreak has never been reported on a ship. That's why the big question here is still: Was there human-to-human transmission?
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt
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Kai Kupferschmidt
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Researchers have only documented human-to-human spread for one hantavirus: Andes virus. The assumption has been that that is likely the culprit here, but we're waiting for confirmation from viral sequencing being done in South Africa (though I've heard from reliable sources it is indeed Andes virus)
in reply to Kai Kupferschmidt

FediThing
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FediThing
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The Wikipedia description is terrifying: "In humans, infection leads to HPS, an illness characterized by an early phase of mild and moderate symptoms such as fever, headache, and fatigue, followed by sudden respiratory failure. The case fatality rate from infection is high, at about 40%."

Hopefully the difficulty of human to human transmission means it's not something to worry about?

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