Canada Ends Isolation for MV Hondius Hantavirus Contacts

The Public Health Agency of Canada has ended self-isolation for people in Canada monitored after exposure to hantavirus linked to Oceanwide Expeditions’ MV Hondius, closing the Canadian portion of a multi-country health response that began after the ship’s April voyage. PHAC also said a Canadian passenger who tested positive for the rare rodent-borne virus has recovered. The outbreak killed three people and led the World Health Organization to count 13 infections among people associated with the ship.

The end of Canadian isolation follows the evacuation of more than 120 people from the vessel in Spain’s Canary Islands in early May and weeks of quarantine or monitoring for passengers and crew repatriated to more than 20 countries.

Canadian monitoring ends after patient recovery

The Canadian patient was a Yukon man in his 70s who had been discharged from hospital earlier this month after B.C. officials said he was isolating on Vancouver Island. Eight other travellers had been monitored by public health officials in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia; PHAC said the isolation period had ended for everyone by last week.

PHAC said hantavirus symptoms usually appear after two to three weeks. British Columbia officials had earlier described the Hondius contact period as 42 days, the maximum incubation window used for the people under quarantine in that province.

Other agencies wind down Hondius response

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all Americans exposed on the ship had completed quarantine and returned home, with none testing positive. Eighteen U.S. citizens had been quarantined in Omaha after the Canary Islands evacuation.

“These passengers were navigating uncertainty, disruption to their daily lives, and concerns for themselves and their families,” said Brendan Jackson, acting director of the CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said almost all passengers and crew quarantined in the Netherlands had been cleared to return home, including non-nationals, with no new cases or deaths since May 2. St. Helena, where some passengers had disembarked, ended its hantavirus major incident on June 8 after all identified contacts completed mandatory isolation and no active, suspected or confirmed cases remained on the island.

Oceanwide ship cleared after disinfection

MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a South Atlantic expedition before continuing north toward Cape Verde and Tenerife.

Oceanwide Expeditions said the vessel completed deep cleaning and disinfection in Rotterdam, with biosecurity specialists treating all eight decks, steam-cleaning soft surfaces and disinfecting hard surfaces. Third-party professionals also declared the ship rodent-free.

“From a public health perspective, there are no objections to returning the vessel to service,” Rotterdam-Rijnmond Public Health Service said in a statement shared by the operator. Oceanwide said the vessel was scheduled to leave Rotterdam on June 6 for Longyearbyen, Norway, with a different crew and its first Arctic cruise of the season scheduled for June 13.

Origin inquiry remains unresolved

Hantavirus infections can cause fever, headaches and breathing difficulty, with PHAC citing a fatality rate of 30 to 50 percent. The Andes strain involved in the Hondius outbreak is the only hantavirus known to spread from person to person, although UCSF infectious diseases specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said it is difficult to transmit and generally requires prolonged close contact.

Health authorities have not identified the original exposure site. Argentine officials expanded their investigation into the chain of transmission and said it may never be possible to determine exactly where the Dutch couple who first became ill contracted the virus before boarding in Ushuaia.