New hantavirus case suspected on remote island as contact tracing continues

A new suspected case of hantavirus has been identified in a British man who was a passenger on the virus-hit luxury cruise ship MV Hondius and is now on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, health authorities say.

The UK Health Security Agency does not disclose further details of the new suspected case in the British overseas territory where the cruise ship made a stop on April 15.

Tristan da Cunha, home to only around 200 people, is halfway between South Africa and South America and the world’s remotest inhabited island, more than 1,500 miles and a six-day boat ride from St Helena, its nearest inhabited neighbor.

An islander had been hospitalized and his wife was self-isolating, the UK Minister for the Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty, says in a statement posted on Tristan da Cunha’s local government website.

Four islanders took a lift on the Dutch-flagged vessel to St Helena, he adds. Tristan da Cunha administrator Philip Kendall said these had been advised to self-isolate there as a precaution.

While the new case remained suspected, the announcements of precautions will fuel concerns about the Andes strain of hantavirus found on the ship that in rare cases can spread from human to human.

Three people — a Dutch couple and a German national — died following the outbreak on the MV Hondius.

Four others confirmed to be infected, two Britons, a Dutch and a Swiss national, are being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland, and a fifth case is suspected, according to the World Health Organization.

Those figures do not include the suspected case on Tristan da Cunha. The World Health Organization says it will provide an update later on Friday.