Five Catalan residents on board cruise ship where hantavirus outbreak detected

Five residents of Catalonia are on board the cruise ship where an outbreak of hantavirus has been declared, according to the Public Health Agency of Catalonia.

The ship is carrying 147 people in total, 88 passengers and 59 crew members, of 23 nationalities. Of these, 13 passengers and one crew member are of Spanish nationality.

Catalonia's Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández, told Catalan radio station RAC1 that they are in contact with the five Catalans and that they do not have symptoms "of any kind".

On May 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) received a notification about an outbreak of a serious respiratory disease of initially unknown cause.

Three people have already died aboard the ship, with another person in critical condition. Two of the deceased passengers had traveled to South America before boarding the cruise.

According to the Public Health Agency, it is unknown how much contact those passengers had with local fauna during the trip of before boarding. 

The same health sources say that, among all passengers, two suspected cases with mild respiratory symptoms or gastrointestinal symptoms have been reported.

The cruise ship is flagged by the Netherlands and is currently in Cape Verde.

Authorities are carrying out the epidemiological investigation and public health checks necessary to control the virus and guarantee global health security.

Call for calm

Esteve Fernández explained that health authorities have been in contact with the Catalans traveling on the cruise ship. They explained to him that they were "worried but calm."

The travelers explained that they were in quarantine and that the Ministry of Health gave them instructions and explained the risks of the situation.

The health secretary insisted that transmission of the virus among humans on the ship is "very unlikely." The best hypothesis authorities currently have is that the affected passengers were infected before boarding the ship.

Fernández went as far as saying the risk for the general population "almost zero."

Virus transmitted by rodents

The Public Health Agency has pointed out that hantaviruses are viruses transmitted by rodents that can be transmitted to humans through contact with feces or urine of infected rodents or with contaminated surfaces.

The incubation period usually ranges between two and four weeks after exposure. There are several types of hantavirus, with different geographical distributions, which cause variable clinical pictures.

Given that hantaviruses present in Europe are not transmitted from person to person and that no case of infection has been detected in Spain, the Agency has assured that the general risk of transmission of this disease is "very low."

Three main clinical forms can be distinguished after infection: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and epidemic nephropathy, associated with types of hantavirus present mainly in central Europe; and cardiopulmonary syndrome produced by a type of hantavirus present in the American continent. The cardiopulmonary syndrome, typical of America, initially manifests itself as a flu-like condition with gastrointestinal alterations, with rapid progression and a mortality rate that can reach 35-50%. It has no specific treatment.

In America, in 2005, eight countries reported confirmed cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, with a total of 229 cases and 59 deaths. The reporting countries were mainly Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Panama, Paraguay, the United States and Uruguay.

In Europe, according to a 2023 report, 28 countries in the European Union reported cases of infection, with an annual total of 1,765. Germany and Finland accounted for 60.5% of these cases. No cases of local transmission have been detected in Spain or Catalonia, according to the Agency.