On April 1, the MV Hondius cruise left the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina.
The vessel has since grabbed attention all over the world following an outbreak of hantavirus, a rare disease typically transmitted from the faeces of infected rodents.
Health officials are meeting the ship today in Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, from where British passengers will be flown home on a dedicated repatriation flight.
While the source of the outbreak remains unknown, a clue may lie in the ship’s origin.
Argentina has experienced an unusually high number of hantavirus cases this year.
The South American country has recorded 101 cases since last June, CNNreported.
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This is a 10 per cent increase on the same period the previous year, when just 59 cases were recorded.
Ushuaia is not one of the places to record instances of hantavirus, with the disease typically concentrated in four geographical areas of Argentina, including provinces in the north east, north west and the south.
Experts now believe that climate change has contributed to the rise in cases in the country, with habitat destruction leading to more exposure to the urine and faeces of infected rodents.
Argentina’s Ministry of Health said: ‘Increasing human interaction with wild environments, habitat destruction, the establishment of small urbanisations in rural areas, and the effects of climate change contribute to the appearance of cases outside historically endemic areas.’
Temperature changes are also affecting the spread of the disease. Ecosystem changes affect the long-tailed mouse, which is the carrier of the virus in Argentina and Chile.
Rodents are more able to adapt to climate change – which could explain why we’re seeing higher cases of the disease.
This year, the capital region of Buenos Aires has been the epicentre of the disease, with 42 cases recorded.
Dutch couple Mirjam Schilperoord, 69 and her husband, who both died of the disease after boarding MV Hondius, are thought to have visited at least two affected areas, Misiones and Neuquén, during a tour of South America.
The sudden outbreak on board the cruise ship has triggered recollections of the Covid pandemic.
There are some parallels. Both viruses are thought to originate from animals, with experts pointing to climate change and human encroachment on natural habitats as possible causes of the outbreaks.
However, unlike COVID, epidemiologists do not believe hantavirus will become the next pandemic.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Tenerife that the risk to the public posed by the virus remained ‘low’.
In contrast to the easily transmitting COVID, hantavirus rarely spreads between humans, and when it does, it is usually after prolonged contact with an infected person.
Dr Charlotte Hammer, an assistant professor in health security and infectious diseases at Cambridge University, said that the specific conditions onboard the MV Hondius did not reflect those of everyday life, with passengers on cruises routinely mixing in tight spaces.
‘In terms of the transmission potential, it is incredibly different from Covid’, she said.
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