B.C.’s provincial health officer says the four Canadians isolating in Victoria after leaving the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are from B.C. and the Yukon.
The group includes a Vancouver Island resident in their 70s, another person from B.C. in their 50s who currently lives abroad, and a couple from the Yukon in their 70s, Dr. Bonnie Henry said.
The group arrived in Victoria on Sunday evening.
“All four were and continue to be well and have no symptoms. This is reassuring,” Henry said in an update Monday morning.
“But as we talked about yesterday, we are in a very critical phase of the incubation.”
Henry said the group is receiving daily monitoring including symptom checks, wellness assessments and clear guidance on what to do should their health status change.
“These Canadians have been through a very difficult number of weeks,” Henry said.
“They were tired and I would say exhausted, but very relieved and grateful to be back here in Canada.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said the four will be self-isolating at a pre-determined location for a minimum of 21 days dated back to May 6, and that health officials will reassess the situation at the end of that period.
On Sunday, Henry said the isolation period may be extended to 42 days if necessary due to the virus’s incubation period.
4 Canadians from hantavirus-hit cruise ship fly to B.C.
The outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over the course of weeks on the cruise ship MV Hondius, which sailed from Argentina toward Antarctica and then across the Atlantic Ocean.
It stopped at or near remote islands on the way, as passengers and crew members fell sick, according to information from the cruise operator, the World Health Organization and ship tracking data.
Nearly a month passed between when an elderly Dutch man fell sick and died in the South Atlantic and when laboratory tests in South Africa — more than 3,500 kilometres away — first confirmed hantavirus infections.
Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.
More to come.
