How hantavirus may have spread aboard a cruise ship

A suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has raised questions about how the rare, often fatal illness could have spread among passengers and crew, and whether it may continue to infect some 150 people now stranded aboard the vessel after three already died. While typically transmitted to humans through contact with contaminated rodent waste, health officials say it is possible for transmission to take place between people, albeit on a very limited basis. That may partially explain what occurred in this instance, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention. "We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins," Van Kerkhove told reporters at a news conference Tuesday, referencing a couple who died from suspected hantavirus cases after spending time on the MV Hondius, a Dutch ship that became the focal point of the apparent outbreak while charting a weekslong polar expedition. An investigation, quarantine protocols and contact tracing efforts were underway in hopes of pinpointing the origins of the suspected outbreak and staving off further spread, but exactly how it may have emerged was not yet clear, WHO said in a statement. …