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The ship is currently stationed at Cape Verde.
Initial symptoms of the illness include tiredness, fever, and muscle aches, but it can escalate to severe respiratory conditions and potentially be fatal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that thorough investigations are underway, which involve additional lab tests and epidemiological studies. Medical support is being extended to both passengers and crew, according to a statement released on X.
The WHO further stated that efforts are in motion to evacuate two passengers displaying symptoms from the vessel, while also providing assistance to those remaining on board.
The first casualty was a 70-year-old man who passed away on the ship; his body was removed in Saint Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic. According to South Africa’s Department of Health, the man’s wife collapsed at a South African airport while attempting to board a flight back to the Netherlands and later died in a nearby hospital.
The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, South Africa’s Department of Health said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa trying to take a flight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died at a nearby hospital.
The department identified the patient in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg as a British national.
It said that person fell ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left Saint Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.
Around 150 tourists were onboard the ship at the time of the outbreak, South Africa’s health department said. Several online tour operators said the Hondius, which is described as a specialist polar cruise ship, usually travels with around 70 crew members.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, was conducting contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify if other people were exposed to the infected passengers in South Africa.
MV Hondius is operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, a Dutch travel company that offers cruise packages that explore the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the world.
Hantavirus are a group of viruses that can impact people, though there have been no human cases recorded in Australia.
The virus is found all over the world, including in Asia, Europe and the USA.
It gained attention last year  after the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection.
Hackman died around a week later at their home from heart disease.
The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
There is no specific treatment or cure for hantavirus infections, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
Reported with Associated Press.
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