Ambulances and police at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport stand by to transport a British hantavirus patient evacuated from the cruise ship Hondius. On Friday, British authorities said they believed a third Briton had contracted the virus. File Photo by Michel van Bergen/EPA
A third British passenger from the stricken MV Hondius cruise ship has a suspected hantavirus infection, the British government said Friday.
The patient is on the remote British island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic after disembarking from the ship in the middle of April.
Two other Britons with confirmed hantavirus who were evacuated from the ship were being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands and South Africa, one of them in intensive care.
They are among five confirmed cases, one of whom, a 69-year-old woman from the Netherlands, died after leaving the ship in St. Helena and flying to South Africa. Two other passengers are dead but the cause has yet to be confirmed.
Former British police officer Martin Anstee, 56, who worked aboard the Hondius as an expedition guide, was flown, along with a 41-year-old Dutch crew member and a 65-year-old German, from Cape Verde to the Netherlands, where he was in a stable condition.
The second Briton with confirmed hantavirus is an unnamed man, aged 69.
Since being medevaced from the ship to a South African hospital at the end of April, health officials said his condition has improved somewhat, although he continues to be treated in the intensive care unit.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said two other British nationals who returned to Britain of their own accord were voluntarily self-isolating at home and that any other passengers would be asked to self-isolate for 45 days when they arrived back in the country.
The agency said neither of the individuals or any of the British citizens still aboard the Hondius were reporting symptoms at this time but they were “being closely monitored.”
Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said four other Britons who disembarked when the ship stopped at St. Helena on April 24 were still on the island, which is part of the same British overseas territory as Tristan da Cunha, 1,750 miles west of Cape Town.
They also do not have any symptoms, but the BBC said it had been told medics were en route from Britain to provide assistance.
Another passenger who left the Hondius in St. Helena was being treated in a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, after testing positive for hantavirus.
The first case was only confirmed on Monday, more than three weeks after the first death aboard the Hondius — the husband of the Dutch woman — on April 11.
During that time, 29 passengers disembarked and flew to their homes all over the world, in Britain, the United States, Canada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, New Zealand and at least six other countries, sparking a race by global health agencies to trace them.
South African-based carrier, Airlink, said many of the passengers were on an April 25 flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg with a total of more than 50 other passengers and six crew.
Several countries, including Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, are conducting contact-tracing to try to find other people who may have been exposed to the virus.
The Hondius is currently en route from Cape Verde to Tenerife. When it docks there on Sunday, passengers and crew will be screened and those free of hantavirus symptoms will be immediately flown out to their respective countries.
Historic May moments through the years
Wreathes are seen amongst the statues at the Korean War Veterans Memorial during Memorial Day weekend in Washington on May 27, 2023. Memorial Day, which honors U.S. military personnel who died while in service, is held on the last Monday of May. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
