An outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people – including an elderly married couple – and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and South Africa’s health department said on Sunday. Hantavirus is normally transmitted by rats. Yikes.
The WHO said an investigation was under way but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the UN’s health agency said in a statement to the Associated Press, and the WHO was working with authorities to evacuate two others with symptoms from the ship.
The outbreak was reported on the MV Hondius, which was travelling between Argentina and Cape Verde. According to several online ship-tracking sites, the MV Hondius was just off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on Sunday night.
When you're on a cruise ship that doesn't stop in port overnight, like an Atlantic crossing, you're trapped on an incubator for four or five days. One lady sneezes at the buffet table and 60 people get sick. And then ya got the cruises with eight million kids running around like they have no parents. This is definitely not my idea of something to do. Juss' sayin'...
No comments:
Post a Comment