Key Summary
- A third British citizen is suspected of Hantavirus.
- The outbreak was reported with the death of three passengers in the cruise.
- Passengers are urged to isolate themselves for 45 days as soon as they return to their country.
A third British national has been suspected to be infected by the Hantavirus linked to a cruise ship MV Hondius that was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde, according to media reports.
The patient is currently at Tristan da Cunha, a remote island in the Atlantic, where the ship stopped in mid-April, BBC reports.
The outbreak linked to the ship has killed three people, and five Hantavirus cases have been confirmed so far.
Among the two earlier confirmed cases involving British nationals, one was evacuated to the Netherlands and the other was shifted to a hospital in South Africa last month.
The UKHSA said none of the British citizens still onboard the ship are reporting any symptoms, but they are being closely monitored.
The MV Hondius is expected to dock in the Canary Islands at the weekend, and the UK government has confirmed it will fly the remaining British passengers and crew back to the country.
They will be asked to isolate for 45 days upon their return home.
The UKHSA is working with partners to ensure that the flight operates under strict infection control measures.
A total of 29 people, including seven Britons, left the Hondius when it docked in St Helena on 24 April, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.
Contact tracing is under way in multiple countries for passengers who left the cruise ship before the outbreak was detected.
