The hantavirus scare in recent weeks brought back memories of how the COVID-19 pandemic got going – a cruise ship with sick people.
In the case of the hantavirus, the ship is MV Hondius. A 70-year-old man died of the virus on April 11. As of May 11, there have been several other confirmed cases, and three people, including the wife of the first victim, have died.
Several passengers are hospitalized and are receiving care in France, South Africa, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore and Spain.
The passengers who became sick boarded the ship in Argentina. The Andes strain of the hantavirus that infected them is endemic in South America. People usually get infected with the hantavirus through contact with urine, feces or saliva of infected rodents; however, this particular strain can be transmitted human to human.
Passengers were allowed to disembark at Tenerife, Canary Islands, and are being medically evacuated to their countries of origin.
Including crew and passengers, there were 147 people aboard the ship, including two from Grey-Bruce. A number of passengers, including the two from this area, have returned home; they are currently well and are being closely monitored by public health.
The wording used by experts regarding further spread of the hantavirus is “cautiously optimistic.” The overall risk of transmission is considered quite low – prolonged close contact is required – and the response to the outbreak was swift and coordinated.
In contrast, the first cruise ship with a major outbreak of COVID-19, the Diamond Princess, carried 3,711 passengers and crew; around 700 became infected and nine people died. That was in February 2020.
By June 2020, over 40 cruise ships had confirmed cases on board.
The responses to shipboard COVID-19 outbreaks differed from country to country, and was often ineffective for varying reasons. There were reports of passengers being quarantined in cabins while crew continued to move freely throughout the ship, of some passengers having temperature checks while others did not, and inadequate disinfection protocols.
Six years later, cruise ships are still being described as floating petri dishes. Mind you, people adore cruises for their convenience and affordability. There is no shortage of people eager to explore the world while sitting on deck chairs and sipping umbrella drinks. For the more adventurous, there are ships that combine the comforts of cruises with adrenalin – umbrella drinks and selfies with polar bears. New places, new thrills, great photos and priceless stories to impress the relatives.
One thing the adventure-tourism set might not be considering is what might be lurking in some of those exciting new ports of calls – rare viruses that used make occasional individuals sick, but quickly burned themselves out for want of new hosts. The adventure-tourists themselves might also be carrying illnesses from areas where they are endemic, to places where no one has any resistance – not just illnesses impacting people, but wildlife. Being able to safely transport tourists to fascinating and formerly isolated corners of the earth, does not necessarily mean that should happen.
With luck, this hantavirus outbreak will be a sad but brief footnote in the story of cruise ships, unlike COVID-19. Sooner or later, though, our luck will run out.
This is not a plea for everyone to remain in their own little sanitizer and avoid cruise ships … well, like the plague (play on words definitely intended). What it is, is a plea for caution. The smaller our world becomes, the more careful we need to be – not just for our own safety, but for the safety of everyone and everything we might encounter on our travels.
Fans of Star Trek will no doubt remember the Prime Directive, which basically forbids messing with developing cultures in any way that could change the direction of that development. A look back at earth’s own history proves how sensible the Prime Directive would be, if it were real, and if it included everything from medicine to ecology. There is nothing wrong with going where no one has gone before, as long as viruses – and tourists suffering from them – stay home.
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Pauline Kerr is a reporter for Midwestern Newspapers. She can be reached at pkerr@midwesternnewspapers.com
