(LEX18) — Three passengers aboard a Dutch-flagged cruise ship have died after contracting Hantavirus, following a couple who brought the virus onboard in April.
The World Health Organization says the first victim, a man, died onboard April 11about a week and a half after the ship left port. His wife, a second victim, died April 26 at a South American airport. Another womab died May 2 on the ship in Cape Verde. Seventeen of the passengers aboard the ship are from the United States.
Officials say they are monitoring flights cruise passengers may have taken in April after the ship docked, and five people are currently being tested for the virus.
Nicholas Van Sickels, infectious disease and control medical director for the University of Kentucky, said the virus is well-documented but rare in the United States.
"The Hantavirus is one that we've known about for years and years and years. It causes infections worldwide," he said."
Van Sickels said the virus is most commonly associated with a severe form of pneumonia in the U.S.
"So we typically in the US know it for causing a type of pneumonia that makes you very very sick," he said. "We typically see that in the western part of the United States."
The U.S. sees roughly 20 to 30 cases per year, concentrated in the western part of the country.
Hantavirus is contracted through contact with rodents. Symptoms can appear 2 to 8 weeks after exposure and may initially resemble a common cold or flu before becoming more serious.
"At the beginning they make you feel like you have a cold or a flu like illness just run of the mill," Van Sickels said. "But then they can make you very very sick. The ones we see in the western hemisphere tend to cause a really bad pneumonia the ones in Europe and Asia tend to cause kidney problems."
The CDC says it is important to clean and seal spaces where rodents may have been, such as sheds or barns. Van Sickels said the risk to Kentuckians from the cruise ship outbreak remains very low, but called it a useful reminder about proper cleaning practices.
"The overall message for the community here in Kentucky is the risk from this ship based on the information we have now is exceedingly low. However, I think it's a good opportunity to look at how you're cleaning up places that might have all kinds of things inside of them."
