Health authorities scrambled on Tuesday to secure a port for a cruise ship off the West African coast, where passengers were isolating following a hantavirus outbreak that has killed three people.

The World Health Organization said the MV Hondius could head from Cape Verde to Spain's Canary Islands, though Spanish authorities said they wanted health data from the expedition vessel before opening up a port, News.Az reports, citing Buenos Aires Times.

The ship had been on an adventure cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde off west Africa. It has been at the centre of an international alert since Saturday after it was revealed that the rare disease – spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva – was suspected in three deaths.

The priority now is to evacuate two sick crew members who require urgent care – potentially to the Netherlands – and "then the ship can move," WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove said in Geneva.

So far, two hantavirus cases have been confirmed – including in one of the fatalities – with five further suspected cases among the 147 passengers and crew, the WHO said.

Three of those seven have died, one was critically ill and three had reported milder symptoms, including one who is now asymptomatic, it said.

One of the dead, a Dutch woman, had left the ship at the Atlantic island of Saint Helena and had flown to Johannesburg where she died on April 26. The WHO said it was trying to contact people who were on the same flight.

Passengers and crew have meanwhile been in isolation on the MV Hondius, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, after Cape Verde authorities barred it from docking.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli