The luxury MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak has been refused permission to dock in the West African island nation of Cape Verde, officials said Monday.
Roughly 150 people are currently trapped on the Dutch cruise liner off the African coast after three passengers died and others became seriously sick with symptoms.
The ship, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica, had requested help from local health authorities on Sunday following the latest death.
So far, no one has yet been allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise said.
Authorities in Cape Verde, for their part, said they had not allowed the Dutch-flagged ship to dock as a precaution, citing the “aim of protecting national public health.”
The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said it was “managing a serious medical situation” and looking into whether passengers could be screened and disembarked on the islands of Las Palmas and Tenerife.
Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in recent weeks following the suspected hantavirus outbreak.
Medics are now also working to try to evacuate at least two people with symptoms of the deadly virus.
A 70-year-old Dutch man died back on April 11 after developing a fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, officials said.
His sick 69-year-old wife was later transferred to South Africa but collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital.
An ill British man was taken off the ship and evacuated to South Africa on April 27 where he later tested positive for hantavirus — a rare infection spread by rodents that can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever.
A third passenger — identified as a German national — died on the ship on Saturday.
The three fatalities haven’t yet been confirmed as hantavirus.
