Health plans to isolate at home the Catalans on board the cruise ship affected by hantavirus

BarcelonaThe luxury cruise ship MV Hondius is sailing towards the Canary Islands after being immobilized for a few days off the coast of Cape Verde due to a hantavirus outbreak that has caused three deaths and at least eight positive cases among the 147 people on board. In total, there are thirteen passengers and one crew member of Spanish nationality, of whom five reside in Catalonia. Health authorities are finalizing the care circuits for individuals once they disembark, but the Department of Health has already indicated that it is most likely that Catalans will undergo home isolation once they return home, provided they continue to be asymptomatic as they have been so far.

"It is an absolutely normal measure for contagious diseases," defended the Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández, this Wednesday, comparing it to the protocol followed by people infected with measles. Fernández explained that they are in constant contact with the Catalan passengers and that they are well, which is why they will likely undergo home isolation until it is ensured that there is no risk of developing symptoms. The virus's incubation period can be between six and eight weeks. Should they feel unwell, they would have to isolate themselves in a specialized unit for containing viruses like this.

For now, however, Fernández has insisted that the Catalans on board the ship are healthy and have no symptoms compatible with the disease, although they are concerned about the situation. The hantavirus outbreak at sea is an "exceptional situation," but the head of Public Health dismisses it as a scenario similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hantavirus is the name given to a widely known group of viruses that are primarily transmitted through the inhalation of particles from the urine, feces, or saliva of rodents – such as the field mouse and the vole – that have been previously infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that in this case, the infection has occurred between humans, a more unusual type of contagion, but one that has been described on other occasions.

Hantaviruses that affect humans are mainly divided into two categories according to their possible origin: some are found in Europe and Asia and others are found in America. The difference is mainly in the symptoms and mortality. The former cause hemorrhagic fever, affect the kidneys and have a mortality rate below 1%, and the latter, which are presumably behind the current outbreak, cause cardiopulmonary symptoms and have a high mortality rate of almost 30%. It should be remembered, however, that the lethality of a virus often varies greatly depending on the healthcare systems of the countries where the infections occur, that is, the care response that can be offered.