The hantavirus outbreak in the cruise ship that left three people dead has been confirmed as being the Andes strain, which is the only one that is transmissible from human-to-human. This explains why there have been at the moment eight confirmed cases, all of them from the ship. The last person confirmed infected was a Swiss man who disembarked alongside his wife before the outbreak was known, and is now being treated in Zurich.
Most of the around 150 passengers of the MV Hondius are still confined in the ship in the docks of Cape Verde, after it departed from Argentina and made an emergency stop in South Africa to treat a passenger. It is now being heatedly discussed in Spain whether the ship will make its intended route until the Canary Islands: the local government of the archipelago wants to avoid it, but they are orders from the World Health Organisation.
It is in South Africa where scientists confirmed the strain of the hantavirus being the Andes one, the only one of 20-30 known strains of this virus, that comes from saliva, droppings or urine from rodents, capable of being transmitted from person-to-person, although very close contact would be needed for that. The hantavirus produces an illness that starts with flu-like symptoms, but has a death rate of 40% as the lungs are filled with fluids.
