Another suspected case of hantavirus has been found.
This time it was on a remote island that the cruise ship at the center of the outbreak stopped last month.
The UK Health Security Agency said that a suspected case was found on Tristan de Cunha, which is considered by some “the most inhabited island in the world,” USA Today reported.
It is located in the South Atlantic Ocean halfway between the tips of South America and Africa.
Officials said the person is a British national, USA Today said.
Four Tristan islanders had been on the MV Hondius, traveling to St. Helena, but it is not known where they disembarked, or if they were originally passengers or just got a ride between the islands, The Associated Press reported.
Despite the spotlight being on the hantavirus due to the outbreak on the MV Hondius, the World Health Organization said the risk to the wider public is low, according to the AP.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said, “The risk remains absolutely low. This is not a new COVID.”
Additionally, a flight attendant on a plane that had been briefly boarded by someone with hantavirus has tested negative, easing concerns about the possible transmission of the illness.
Officials are trying to pinpoint the source of the illness. Argentinian investigators think the cases started due to a birdwatching trip in Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Argentina. There has been a surge in cases in the country, with health researchers attributing to climate change.
A 70-year-old passenger on the MV Hondius died on the ship on April 11 and his wife left the ship when his body was taken off in St. Helena on April 24. She flew from St. Helena to Johannesburg and was trying to get on a flight when she fell ill. She was taken to a hospital where she died on April 2, the AP reported.
The MV Hondius is on its way to the Canary Islands, where the more than 140 passengers will be carefully evacuated.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, said.
The 17 Americans on the ship will be flown home, Barcones said.
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