WHAT was billed as a 35-day “Atlantic Odyssey” for the 114 or so passengers of the MV Hondius has turned into a voyage fraught with global health concerns.
The Hondius departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for the Canary Islands, stopping at several ports along the way.
Five days later, several passengers were stricken ill, developing flu-like symptoms, including high fever, chills, severe muscle aches and diarrhea.
The condition of some of the passengers progressed to severe respiratory distress. One of them, a 70-year-old Dutch man, died on April 11, and his death was attributed to natural causes.
The situation on the Hondius had worsened to the point that 30 passengers and two crewmembers had to disembark in St. Helena and were flown home.
Tests on those who had to leave the ship confirmed an outbreak of hantavirus on board. So far, three people have reportedly died, among them the wife of the first fatality.
The star-crossed voyage of the Hondius was expected to end last Sunday, when it anchored off Tenerife, because authorities did not allow the ship to dock. Everyone on board will be transferred by boats to shore, where ambulances are waiting to take them to the airport for repatriation flights.
Among those scheduled for repatriation are the 38 Filipinos who make up half of the ship’s crew. None of them were reported to be infected, but it is best that they go through strict quarantine processing once they arrive home.
News about the Hondius incident has been racing across the world, fueling concerns about the emergence of another pandemic. The concerns are magnified by misinformation about the hantavirus that is being spread on social media.
When Covid-19 struck in 2019, virologists practically knew nothing about its origins. It did not help that health authorities in China initially refused to share data with the World Health Organization about the new strain of coronavirus they were researching in a laboratory in Wuhan.
China’s lack of data disclosure was described by a WHO epidemiological expert as “simply inexcusable.” The expert said: “The longer it takes to understand the origins of the pandemic, the harder it becomes to answer the question, and the more unsafe the world becomes.”
True enough, it took several more months for the WHO to declare a Covid-19 pandemic. By the time the pandemic was officially declared over in 2024, the virus had infected nearly 780 million people and killed over 7.1 million.
Economies worldwide took a severe beating as lockdowns, travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines straitjacketed human activity.
The hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius has resurrected old fears, thanks to the hoaxes and conspiracy theories that have infested social media.
There are claims that the hantavirus, like Covid-19, is a new pathogen. It is not. Scientists have known of its existence since the 1950s, and that it is transmitted to humans by a specific type of rodent.
The Andes variant responsible for the outbreak on the Hondius is rare, and medical teams are still tracing how it got there.
Human-to-human transmission is possible, but is also rare. The findings from the Hondius cases will shed more light on such an occurrence.
According to the WHO, there are between 10,000 and 100,000 cases worldwide of hantavirus annually, concentrated mainly in East Asia and Northern and Central Europe.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier acknowledged that the hantavirus is dangerous, “but only to the person who’s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low.”
The mortality rate for hantavirus is between 30 percent and 50 percent. By comparison, the rate for Covid-19 is 1 percent to 3 percent.
One highly popular misconception is that the hantavirus infection can be cured with ivermectin, vitamin D or zinc. There is no scientific proof that these work.
Social media users must be more discerning in appraising news that blows up the threat of the hantavirus or panders a cure for it. Checking official sources of information, like the WHO or government agencies, will help provide a more accurate picture of what is going on.
We’ve been blindsided by Covid-19 before. We cannot afford to be caught unprepared this time.
