South Africa’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the country has identified 97 people who had been in contact with suspected hantavirus patients linked to cruise ship MV Hondius.
Motsoaledi said health authorities, working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), are tracing and monitoring the contacts to reduce the risk of further spread.
Of the 97 contacts identified, 90 have already been reached, advised and placed under observation. The remaining contacts are still being traced.
Among the 90 people reached, four are in the Western Cape and 86 are in Gauteng.
Officials said the monitored contacts will remain under observation for six weeks, consistent with the WHO-recommended 42-day quarantine period.
The move comes as the outbreak linked to the ship draws international attention.
The WHO has confirmed seven cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus and has identified two other suspected cases – including one person who died before being tested and another on Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where testing was not available.
Health officials say the virus does not spread easily between people, meaning the risk to the general public remains low, and they urged calm after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The MV Hondius was carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses among passengers was first reported to the WHO on 2 May.
By that time, 34 passengers had already disembarked on islands in the Atlantic before the ship headed north to Cape Verde, where details of the outbreak emerged.
In Johannesburg, health officials detected the virus while treating a British man who had disembarked from the ship, approximately three weeks after the first passenger, a Dutchman, died.
The luxury cruise ship later departed for the Canary Islands on 6 May after Madrid accepted a WHO request to manage the evacuation.
JN/APA