The World Health Organization said Sunday it had been informed of a public health event involving a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and was providing support after three deaths linked to a possible hantavirus infection outbreak.
The agency said one case of hantavirus had been confirmed in a laboratory, with five other suspected cases, bringing the total number of affected people to six. Three of those six have died, and one person was in intensive care in South Africa.
Hantaviruses are transmitted through rodents, and that fact gives the report its immediate weight: a cruise ship, a confirmed infection, several suspected cases and deaths, all unfolding far from the usual settings in which the virus is discussed. The ship was described as sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The uncomfortable gap is that the WHO described the event as a possible outbreak, even as it said there was already a laboratory confirmation and multiple suspected cases. That leaves the central question not about whether people were affected, but about how broadly the illness has spread and what investigators find next.
