Il Nuovo Postiglione - Cruise ship passenger with hantavirus being treated in Zurich

The man and his wife, both Swiss nationals, returned to Switzerland, having left the MV Hondius at the Atlantic Ocean island of Saint Helena, the Swiss health ministry told AFP.

"One person has tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland," said a ministry statement.

The man was being treated at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ), which the ministry said was "prepared to deal with such cases", and "there is currently no risk to the Swiss public".

The MV Hondius visited Saint Helena from April 22 to 24. A weekly scheduled flight left for Johannesburg on April 25.

One passenger on that flight died in hospital in hospital in South Africa, while a British patient from the ship is in hospital. Both tested positive for hantavirus.

The statement said the Swiss couple returned home at the end of April, "after travelling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases".

The ministry said the patient's wife had not shown symptoms, but was "self-isolating as a precaution".

The Dutch-flagged ship set sail from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1 and has been anchored off Cape Verde since Sunday.

With the patient in Zurich, the WHO said there were now three confirmed and five suspected hantavirus cases linked to the ship.

The WHO said on X the Swiss man "had responded to an email from the ship's operator (Oceanwide Expeditions) informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich".

- Mild symptoms -

Samples from the patient were sent to Geneva University Hospital, the Swiss reference centre for emerging viral infections.

"To my knowledge, the patient presented himself in Zurich with mild respiratory symptoms, explaining that he was a passenger on this cruise ship," Manuel Schibler, head of the Geneva hospital's virology laboratory, told AFP.

Schibler said test results that came back Tuesday had indentified the Andes strain of the hantavirus. Normally found in rodents, Andes, circulating in South America, is the only known hantavirus strain that can be passed between humans.

"It is capable of causing what is called a pulmonary syndrome with respiratory symptoms, even respiratory distress, which, in the worst cases, can lead to death," said Schibler.

He said Andes had a case fatality rate of 30 to 50 percent, "which is very high for a viral disease" -- but cautioned that this was based on diagnosed cases, so the true rate, including asymptomatic and very mild cases, could be much lower.

He said with the Andes virus, it could be one to three weeks before symptoms appear, and in severe cases, the deterioration could then be "quite quick".

While passengers had come ashore, there are currently no suspected hantavirus cases on St Helena, the remote British territory's government said in a statement.

"All higher risk contacts identified to date have received daily verbal contact from a doctor, including instruction on the need to self-isolate at home," it said.

M.Vacanti--INP