<\/p>\n
Nobody boarded the MV Hondius expecting to become part of an international health investigation. It was a cruise ship. It had a route. And then, somewhere between Argentina and the Canary Islands, something went very wrong.<\/p>\n
A cluster of hantavirus cases has now been traced back to that voyage, with cases surfacing across multiple countries and three people already dead. President Donald Trump addressed reporters on May 7 and 8, confirming he had been, saying the situation is under control, and that Americans should not panic. His message was essentially: we hope it\u2019ll be fine, we have great people on it, and a full report is coming.<\/p>\n
That is a lot of hope carrying a lot of weight.<\/p>\n
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia<\/a>, Argentina, on March 20 and was sailing toward the Canary Islands. That is already a journey that covers a wide stretch of the globe, and the problem is that by the time anyone sounded the alarm, the ship had already made a stop. On April 24, dozens of passengers disembarked on the remote island of St. Helena before the virus was officially flagged by onboard medical staff or any international authority. That timing is what makes this complicated.<\/p>\n The Africa CDC and the World Health Organization have been in high gear since early May, tracking every passenger movement they can piece together. Current data\u00a0puts confirmed cases at somewhere between<\/a> 7 and 8, with at least 1<\/span> patient in critical condition. The fluctuating numbers are due to the time required for lab confirmation, so agencies are often working from initial reports that haven\u2019t yet cleared verification.<\/p>\n