EXPLAINER-What is the hantavirus that killed three cruise ship passengers?
Updates throughout with latest on the ship and its passengers, comments from the WHO and experts. outbreak of hantavirus aboard a luxury cruise ship, with another five confirmed or suspected cases reported, but the World Health Organization has said the wider threat to public health remains low.There have been eight known and suspected hantavirus cases linked to the cruise ship, the MV Hondius, the WHO said on Wednesday, including the three deaths.Three people were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, two of them seriously ill, said the vessel's operator Oceanwide Expeditions. Another patient remains in intensive care in South Africa, and a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the ship is being treated in Zurich.Passengers who are not showing symptoms - currently all of those still on the ship - will be allowed to disembark when they reach the Canary Islands. Spain said the 14 Spanish passengers would be quarantined in a military hospital, while all other passeng