A doctor on thehantavirus-stricken cruise ship has highlighted one major concern surrounding the rapidly developingdisease.
American physician Dr Stephen Kornfeld boarded the MV Hondius inArgentinaexpecting a peaceful holiday, only to find himself at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak on board.
Eight cases have been reported thus far, including three fatalities. Five of those cases have been confirmed as hantavirus, a collection of viruses primarily carried by rodents and transmitted through contact with their urine, faeces and saliva. Human-to-human transmission remains extremely rare.
The MV Hondius departed from Argentina a month ago, with Dr Kornfeld among those who boarded there. He spoke toCNNabout the profound "fear" associated with the illness.
He revealed he "sort of fell into the role of becoming the ship's doctor" after the vessel's own medic was struck down by the virus, reportsthe Daily Mirror.
Dr Kornfeld said: "There are three patients who seemed to be getting ill around the same time. One of them, very non-specific symptoms, a lot of confusion, and a lot of weakness. And she ultimately passed away relatively quickly.
"The two other gentlemen, quite a bit younger including the doc, just had a lot of viral symptoms, a lot of fever, fatigue, flushing, some GI (gastrointestinal) issues, some shortness of breathe.
"At the time neither one of them looked critically ill but the fear with hantavirus is you can go from seriously ill to critically ill very quickly.
"The ability to treat someone here on the ship in that critical state is non-existent. Now they've been evacuated they're getting magnificent care.
"What happens with hantavirus, ultimate survivability is really dependent on your ability to get critical care at the right time. On the boat, that would not be possible."
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
