The deadly hantavirus outbreak causing turmoil on a cruise ship has reached Switzerland, after a man infected with the rat-borne illness arrived in Zurich for treatment. It comes as the Canary Islands refused to let the luxury MV Hondius dock on the archipelago, fearing an outbreak in the community after the rare disease left three passengers dead and several others seriously ill.
The vessel remains stuck in the Atlantic off Cape Verde – an island nation off the coast of West Africa where it has been marooned for days, after health officials also previously refused to authorise its docking ‘with the aim of protecting national public health’. The ship was due to dock in the Canary Islands instead, but the president of the archipelago has refused its arrival – plunging the fate of the vessel’s almost 150 passengers into uncertainty. Meanwhile, the Swiss government said a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the MV Hondius was infected with the hantavirus and was being treated in Zurich. His wife is currently not experiencing any symptoms, but has been placed in isolation ‘for safety reasons,’ local media has reported.
