This (as an update to our story of last evening) is probably the right public health decision — at least until the ship is very thoroughly disinfected, while still in open water, by company crews, with very strong chemical agents (ammonia / bleach and lots of scrubbing). I assume the other cruise passengers will be ferried to shore, and tested in isolation. We shall see.

But the ship itself, wisely, will remain a good distance from port — until further notice.

[Housekeeping note: the local blogging forecast is for intermittent outages — as the Rockies may well get six inches or more of new snow… after I land there, in about ten hours. Onward, for a quiet, contemplative mountain week ahead, it seems — but good to be with my 91 year old mom, as she sinks more deeply into Alzheimer’s.]

In any event, here is the UK Guardian’s reporting on it all, this morning:

…Officials in Cape Verde have said they will not allow a cruise ship believed to be harbouring an outbreak of a rare respiratory virus to dock in its ports, after the deaths of three passengers onboard.

The statement on Monday came hours after global health officials said they were scrambling to investigate the suspected outbreak of hantavirus, a disease primarily found in rodents, on the cruise ship in the Atlantic.

The hantavirus is suspected of killing three people, including a married couple from the Netherlands, sickening at least two others on the ship and sending a 69-year-old British tourist to intensive care in South Africa.

Cape Verde health authorities said they had been monitoring the situation of the ship anchored off its coast and would not authorise its docking “with the aim of protecting national public health….”

Do be careful out there — and I might mention in passing that it is suspected that what killed Gene Hackman and his wife of many years, at their isolated New Mexico compound. . . was also hantavirus — from rodent droppings, likely aerosolized, by sweeping up these dried feces, with all other house dust. As I say — be careful. Especially in the Southwestern rural deserts.

नमस्ते