The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was tracing people on a flight between the island of Saint Helena and Johannesburg taken by a cruise ship passenger who died ofhantavirus.
There had been 82 passengers and six crew onboard the April 25 flight, South African-based carrier Airlink told AFP.
They included a Dutch woman whose husband died of the virus on the ship and whose condition “deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg”, WHO said in a statement.
She had left the ship in Saint Helena with “gastrointestinal symptoms” on April 24 and died upon arrival at the emergency department of a Johannesburg hospital where she tested positive for the hantavirus, it said.
“Contact tracing for passengers on the flight has been initiated,” WHO said.
Airlink operates one flight a week from the island, which takes around four hours.
The South African authorities had asked the airline to notify the passengers that they must contact the health department, a representative, Karin Murray, told AFP.
WHO said it suspected that hantavirus may have spread between people on the cruise ship, which was on Tuesday stranded off Cape Verde.
Besides theDutchcouple, a German passenger has also died. There are seven confirmed and suspected cases.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
Source: Insider Paper
