Health authorities raced Tuesday to find a port for a cruise ship battling a hantavirus outbreak, as it remained off theWest Africancoast with passengers isolating after three people died.

The World Health Organization said the MV Hondius could head from Cape Verde to Spain’s Canary Islands, though Spanish authorities said they wanted health data from the expedition vessel before opening up a port.

The ship had been on an adventure cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde off west Africa. It has been at the centre of an international alert since Saturday after it was revealed that the rare disease — spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva — was suspected in three deaths.

The priority now is to evacuate two sick crew members who require urgent care — potentially to the Netherlands — and “then the ship can move”, WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove said in Geneva.

So far, two hantavirus cases have been confirmed — including in one of the fatalities — with five further suspected cases among the 147 passengers and crew, the WHO said.

Three of those seven have died, one was critically ill and three had reported milder symptoms, including one who is now asymptomatic, it said.

One of the dead, a Dutch woman, had left the ship at the Atlantic island of Saint Helena and had flown to Johannesburg where she died on April 26. The WHO said it was trying to contact people who were on the same flight.

Passengers and crew have meanwhile been in isolation on the MV Hondius, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, after Cape Verde authorities barred it from docking.

According toVan Kerkhove, Spanish authorities had “said that they will welcome the ship to do… a full epidemiologic investigation”. They would also conduct a “full disinfection of the ship and… assess the risk of the passengers.”

Spain’s health ministry said that a decision on where to send the vessel would be based “on the epidemiological data collected from the ship during its stopover in Cape Verde”. The Canary Islands government said it wanted the ship sent to mainland Spain.

Source: Insider Paper