Infectious disease experts have warned there will be more hantavirus cases, with the most recent outbreak likely triggered by a ‘super-spreader’.
The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) similarly told countries to prepare for more cases in the coming weeks.
Three passengers – a Dutch couple and a German woman – died after travelling on the doomed MV Hondius, when the first victim fell ill.
It is believed that he may have been infected at a landfill site on the outskirts of Ushuaia, a birdwatching spot popular with tourists – and overrun with scavenging rodents.
Now leading virologists say it’s plausible that Leo Schilperoord, who has been dubbed patient X, was a super-spreader.
If accurate, he is the reason why the deadly disease is spreading between humans at unprecedented rates.
‘Hantavirus isn’t new,’ Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia said.
‘But it is the first time an outbreak has occurred on a cruise ship – an environment which is really good at spreading infections, whether that’s Covid, influenza or norovirus.’
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Experts believe it is unlikely that a mutation in the virus is behind the rapid spread of infection between humans – making it no different from other cases of the Andes strain, which is rife in parts of Argentina.
But what makes this particular outbreak different is that it may have been picked up by a super-spreader four days before boarding the ship, creating the perfect storm.
Whilst experts do not fully understand what makes someone a super-spreader, it is believed that a small group of people can infect far more people than average.
There are a number of theories, but no definitive answer. Prof Hunter speculates it could be to do with the immune system of the super-spreader – which may not be good at suppressing the virus, or alternatively sheds more of it.
But one thing seems fairly certain – especially since Covid – it’s pretty much impossible to know who will be a super-spreader.
And according to Prof Hunter, there’s ‘convincing’ research that shows super-spreaders of hantavirus do exist.
‘It is plausible then that what we’re seeing is that the [birdwatching] couple picked up the virus at a landfill site.
‘One or both of them then happened by chance to be a super-spreader in an environment where spread is particularly easy.
‘This is the best explanation we have at the moment as to why hantavirus is spreading so rapidly between humans,’ Prof Hunter added.
‘As I said, hantavirus isn’t new. But it’s the first time something like this, where the disease has made the jump to humans and is spreading, has happened.’
He added that if this is the case, then existing assessments which suggest the virus doesn’t pose much of a risk to members of the public in the UK who haven’t been in close contact with a super-spreader, remain valid.
However, he cautioned: ‘We still need to keep a very careful eye over the next few days because you can never predict with 100 per cent accuracy what an infectious disease is going to do.’
There are currently nine confirmed cases and two further suspected cases of the virus.
Hantavirus, which can cause deadly lung damage and organ failure, is usually spread by rodents’ urine, droppings or saliva. When the virus makes the jump from rodents to humans, it’s usually because viral spores have been inhaled.
There are around 40 confirmed strains of the virus, including the Andes strain which the only known hantavirus to pass from human to human.
