Woman isolating on British island in South Pacific after hantavirus contact

The woman who was on a virus-hit ship shows "no signs of illness", the government of Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory, says. Woman isolating on British island in South Pacific after hantavirus contact Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. The remote Pitcairn Islands has a population of about 50 people A woman is isolating on the Pitcairn Islands, a remote British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific, after travelling on a hantavirus-hit cruise ship. A local government spokesperson told the BBC the person "had contact with a hantavirus-exposed individual" but was "showing no signs of illness". The UK foreign office said it was "aware of an individual from the MV Hondius who has travelled on to the Pitcairn Islands". Officials said she was not a suspected case and the risk to the public was low. The woman had flown from San Francisco on 7 May and travelled through the island of Tahiti and then Mangareva in French Polynesia, the French Polynesian government said. No details have been released about when and where she left the cruise and travelled to the US. A map shows a journey from San Francisco to Tahiti to Mangareva to Pitcairn. Three people have died after travelling on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius ship. Two of them were confirmed virus cases. The third had earlier developed symptoms and is believed to have been the first infected in the outbreak, but died before he could be tested. The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN global health agency, has since confirmed nine cases, with two others suspected. On Tuesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was at that time "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak after the evacuation of the last passengers from the ship a day earlier. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was at that time "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak after the evacuation of the last passengers from the ship a day earlier. But he warned that "the situation could change" and there could be more confirmed virus cases. Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain - which the WHO believes some of the ship's passengers contracted in South America - is possible. Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and shortness of breath. passenger in white is screened by health workers in orange in tenerife How worried should we be about hantavirus? Men in hazmat suits inside a car with Guardia Civil written on the side and a SPANISH FLAG How are countries responding to hantavirus? The woman - who has not been publicly named - was currently isolating on Pitcairn, the only inhabited of the four volcanic islands of the British Overseas Territory. The British foreign office told the BBC it was coordinating with the local authorities and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) "to manage the risks to the individual and the islanders". UKHSA said the length of isolation for close contacts of cases, which those on the ship are considered to be, is 45 days. It is not yet clear when the UK government or local authorities were made aware of the case. Speaking to the BBC, the Pitcairn government spokesman said: "We are working closely with the health authorities and the UK government to manage the situation. "The wellbeing of our community remains the top priority." The Pitcairn Islands has a population of about 50 people and most of the residents are descendants of mutineers from the Royal Navy warship HMS Bounty who settled there in 1790. Meanwhile, the French Polynesian government said the woman had transited through without notifying "territorial and national authorities". Authorities held an emergency meeting on Sunday and decided not to allow the woman now isolating on Pitcairn to re-enter French Polynesia. "Although she is currently completely asymptomatic and therefore not contagious, (she) will not leave Pitcairn Island to travel through French Polynesia as long as she poses a risk to others," it said. French Polynesia said passengers on the same flight as the woman from San Francisco to Tahiti were not considered close contacts and "the risk of infection is considered very low". The MV Hondius had been carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries after departing from Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on 1 April. A 70-year-old Dutch man was the first passenger who died on board the vessel on 11 April. His 69-year-old wife left the ship on 24 April on the island of St Helena and flew to South Africa. She died two days later in a clinic in Johannesburg. A German woman died on board the cruise ship on 2 May. The MV Hondius left Spain's Tenerife island on Monday, and is expected to arrive to the Dutch city of Rotterdam on 17 May. British army medics parachuted onto another remote British Overseas Territory, the south Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, to help a British resident with suspected hantavirus who disembarked there on 14 April. Map showing the route of the cruise ship MV Hondius across the South Atlantic Ocean with a timeline of incidents. The ship departs Ushuaia, Argentina on 1 April. On 11 April, the first passenger dies at sea. The route continues north east toward Africa. On 24 April, the wife of the deceased passenger is flown from St Helena to South Africa. A marker near South Africa notes: 26 April, a woman dies in Johannesburg; 27 April, a second sick passenger is flown to hospital. On 2 May, another passenger dies onboard. On 3 May, the ship arrives at Cape Verde. A final note says the ship has arrived in Tenerife on 10 May. The route is shown as a red line with arrows and black dots marking key locations. Tourist hotspot at 'end of the world' denies causing hantavirus outbreak One American passenger who sailed on the MV Hondius is now in a quarantine unit in Omaha, Nebraska. The people from Saint Helena and Ascension Island are connected to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak. The situation could still change and there might be more confirmed cases, warns the head of the World Health Organization.