PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Two patients with hantavirus and one suspected of infection were evacuated Wednesday from a cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak, the U.N. health agency said. The ship then departed Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board — isolated in their cabins — and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear evacuating three patients, including the ship’s British doctor. Two of the patients arrived at Amsterdam’s airport Wednesday evening and were taken to separate hospitals.
Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Of eight recorded cases, five were confirmed by laboratory testing.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.
Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.
