Couple from the Yukon experience symptoms of the hantavirus, with one testing positive this week.
Article content
One of four Canadians from the cruise ship MV Hondius who are isolating on Vancouver Island has tested positive for the Andes strain of Hantavirus, Bonnie Henry, B.C. provincial health officer, said Saturday.
Article content
The four returned to Canada from the ship that was hit by an outbreak of the respiratory virus after leaving Ushuaia, Argentina, late last month, and put into quarantine upon arrival home in Victoria.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
“Clearly, this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” said Henry.
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
None had symptoms when they returned to Canada as they began a quarantine for a minimum of 21 days, with the incubation period of hantavirus lasting around 42 days. One member of a couple from the Yukon, in their 70s, began to develop mild symptoms, including a fever and a headache two days ago.
Article content
They were both taken to hospital and tested, with one individual who was experiencing symptoms testing positive for hantavirus by the B.C. CDC public health lab. Samples were sent to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg for confirmation, with the results expected later Saturday.
Article content
The other member of the isolating couple had minor symptoms, but testing was negative, said Henry.
Article content
A third person in the same lodgings was transferred to the Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals for testing and monitoring, while the fourth — who had been isolating at home — remains and is monitored daily.
Article content
“I want to talk for just a minute about quarantine and isolation. I know these are words that we have heard maybe far too often over the last number of years during the COVID pandemic, and I know they can be very worrying for people to hear,” said Henry. “Quarantine is a tool. … We safely put people in a place where they can be away from others, so that if they develop symptoms, there’s nobody else that they will pass it on to during that very long incubation period.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
“All of these people were exposed on board the cruise ship, and they had been on board that ship for over a month. I think that’s important to know. And it was the second of May that the Andes virus outbreak was identified, so they are now in that key risk period … the period of highest risk, where we know that people are developing symptoms around the 18-day mark.
Article content
Article content
Read More
Article content
“I want to reassure everybody in B.C. that for most of us the situation has not changed. We’ve had infection control precautions in place from the moment these people arrived in British Columbia, and I’m confident there’s no additional risk to anybody else outside of the people who’ve been caring for these individuals.”
Article content
A dozen cases have been linked to the cruise ship outbreak, which has resulted in three fatalities, including a 70-year-old Dutch man, his 69-year-old Dutch spouse, and a German passenger. A 69-year-old British man was evacuated from the ship to intensive care in South Africa, while a female French passenger is critically ill in a hospital in France and is being treated with an artificial lung.
Article content
Hantavirus is usually contracted through contact or breathing in the urine, feces or saliva of infected rodents, or touching contaminated surfaces. Human-to-human transmission typically occurs in communal settings involving close and prolonged contact, according to the World Health Organization.
