An American traveler’s stopover has triggered hantavirus fears and strict precautions on one of the world’s most isolated islands, home to an estimated 35 to 47 residents.
Two Pacific island groups are on high alert after receiving information that a hantavirus contact case had transited recently.
Officials in French Polynesia were informed that an American citizen known to be a hantavirus contact case briefly stopped at Tahiti’s international airport on May 7. After a stopover at the Faa’a International Airport, the woman continued to Mangareva, in French Polynesia’s remote Gambier Island group, then continued her journey to Pitcairn Island.
A contact case denotes a patient who may recently have been in contact with a confirmed outbreak, but has not necessarily contracted the virus. The woman arrived in Tahiti on a flight from San Francisco, and other travelers on that flight were not considered close contact by health officials in Tahiti. The risk of transmission for other passengers on the flight is considered very low, and the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend testing for such individuals.
Continue Reading Article After Our Video
Recommended Fodor’s Video
Out of caution, border officials in French Polynesia have decided not to allow the woman—who is currently isolating and monitoring for symptoms on Pitcairn—back into the country. It was not immediately clear whether the woman’s contact with hantavirus was related to the hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship in the South Atlantic earlier this month.
It was also unclear whether the woman was a resident or visitor to Pitcairn Island. The Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory, are one of the most remote territories anywhere in the world, and the least populated. The island has an estimated population between 35 and 47 and no airport—it is only accessible by sea. Scheduled freighter service from Mangareva and New Zealand operates periodically.
Pitcairn was settled in 1790 by a party comprised of mutineers from the British naval vessel HMS Bounty and a group of Tahitians. Many of the island’s current residents are descendants of the original settlers. The island is governed by a local council and an elected mayor, otherwise the territory is administered by the British High Commission in New Zealand. The island has a doctor, but emergencies requiring hospitalization involve the 330 mile boat trip to Mangareva and an air ambulance flight to Tahiti.
Officials in Tahiti told the New Zealand news outlet RNZ that “French Polynesia and France are ready to support Pitcairn in the coming days, should the need arise.”
Three passengers on the Dutch ship MV Hondius have died since the outbreak began. Five other passengers on the ship have been confirmed to have been infected. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Monday that one of five French nationals who had been repatriated to France from the ship’s evacuation point in Spain’s Canary Islands had developed symptoms.
The WHO notes that hantavirus infections have a high case fatality ratio of 40-50% among elderly patients or those with aggravating conditions, but that the virus has also demonstrated limited human-to-human transmission in previous outbreaks. WHO recommends that symptomatic individuals aboard the affected ship or flights should monitor for symptoms for 42 days following the last exposure.
The WHO considers high-risk exposures to be cabin mates, intimate partners, persons with prolonged close indoor exposure, and healthcare workers or others handling contaminated materials or bodily fluids without protective equipment.