Third British national has suspected hantavirus linked to cruise ship

A third British national has suspected hantavirus linked to a cruise ship outbreak, health officials have said.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said two British nationals have confirmed hantavirus but there is now “an additional suspected case of a British national on Tristan da Cunha”.

The patient remains on the remote South Atlantic island.

The other two British nationals remain in hospital in the Netherlands and South Africa.

The remote islands of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha all lie in the South Atlantic Ocean, midway between Africa and South America.

A total of 29 people left the cruise ship MV Hondius – including seven Britons – when it docked in St Helena on April 24, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.

Three people in total have died linked to an outbreak of hantavirus on the cruise ship.

The UKHSA said none of the British citizens on board the ship, which is now travelling to Tenerife, is currently reporting symptoms but they are being closely monitored.

A statement said the ship is expected to dock in Tenerife on Sunday, according to the latest updates from the Spanish health ministry.

The UKHSA added: “UK Government staff will be on the ground ready to support the British nationals disembarking.

“British passengers and ship crew not displaying any symptoms of hantavirus will be escorted by UK Government staff to an airport and given free passage back to the UK.”

It said Foreign Office officials and UKHSA teams will continue to support passengers, with a dedicated repatriation flight is being organised for passengers and crew.

The statement added: “UKHSA is working with partners to ensure the flight operates under strict infection control measures.

“Public health and infectious disease specialists from UKHSA and the NHS will be on board to monitor British nationals whilst on the flight, to ensure that preventative measures are in place and to provide any care in the unlikely event that any passengers become unwell on the flight.”

All British passengers and crew from the ship are being asked to isolate for 45 days upon returning to the UK, with close monitoring by UKHSA officials.

“Follow-up is already under way for individuals who may have been in contact with cases and have since returned to the UK or are in in UK Overseas Territories,” the statement added.

It has already emerged that two Britons are currently self-isolating at home in the UK after they left the ship.

The two flew back to the UK via Johannesburg after disembarking in St Helena.

Four Britons in total remain on the South Atlantic remote islands. A seventh individual has been traced outside the UK, according to the UKHSA.

Some 19 British nationals in total were listed as passengers on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members.

A 69-year-old British man who was taken off the ship with symptoms is currently receiving intensive care treatment at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg, and is said to be improving.

Another Briton, Martin Anstee, 56, was taken off the ship on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive specialist medical care. He is also improving.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that morale has improved on board since the ship started its journey to Tenerife.

It said two doctors are on board along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who are conducting a medical assessment of all passengers and crew.

While the risk to the public is low, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said there could be more cases because of the incubation period of the Andes virus – the variant of hantavirus linked to the outbreak.

Experts believe the incubation period for the virus in the human body can extend to six weeks.

The WHO is not expecting the outbreak to be an epidemic.

Asked about the two British passengers who have returned to the UK, Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, said on Thursday that contact tracing is happening for anyone who may have sat next to them on the flight home.

The outbreak has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.

The UKHSA statement said the Ministry of Defence has worked with UKHSA to provide vital diagnostic supplies, including PCR tests, which were delivered to Ascension Island via a military plane on Thursday.

Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the pandemic sciences institute at the University of Oxford, said: “I believe the UKHSA, Foreign Office and NHS are taking all the right and necessary measures to protect the UK citizens involved in this challenging incident and to protect the broader UK population.

“Repatriation and isolation is the right thing to do, morally and scientifically.

“It will ensure the UK citizens from the MV Hondius potentially exposed to this virus receive the medical monitoring they need whilst minimising the risk of further infections.

“If any of the returnees do get ill, they will quickly receive the best possible care in the NHS under strict isolation.

“The approach is stringent because this virus can cause severe disease, but the risk to the general population is very low.

“Of course, we need to investigate and carefully monitor the situation to spot any divergence from how we expect this virus to behave, but so far the virus is behaving in a way we know it can.

“We know there can be limited person-to-person transmission following close and prolonged contact with an infected person, but that public health measures can readily stop transmission and bring the outbreak to an end.”