Cape Town, May 13 (IANS) The number of possible contacts with hantavirus-infected people has increased to 97 in South Africa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has confirmed.

South African teams were working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to track exposed passengers, healthcare workers and airline contacts with infected persons, Motsoaledi told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News on Monday.

"So far, we have identified 97 contacts, 90 of whom have been reached already and advised, and they are being watched," he said. "We will watch them for the whole six weeks," Xinhua news agency reported.

"Four of the contacts out of these 90 that have been reached are in the Western Cape, 86 are in Gauteng," he added. "Only one contact in the Western Cape developed some symptoms. But ... up until Friday, tests for the virus have come back negative."

The minister's update followed the confirmation of human-to-human transmissible Andes strain in two hantavirus cases in South Africa after the patients disembarked from a cruise ship linked to an outbreak of the disease, including a British national hospitalised in intensive care in Johannesburg and a Dutch woman who collapsed at OR Tambo International Airport.

The woman later died in South Africa. Her husband, identified as the "patient zero," died on board with his body removed to St Helena.

The three were passengers aboard the MV Hondius, which departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and travelled across the South Atlantic with multiple stops.

Globally, 11 hantavirus-related cases have so far been reported, including three deaths, according to the WHO. Nine of the 11 cases have been confirmed as Andes infections, while the remaining two are considered probable cases.

The NICD said the Andes strain is the only known hantavirus strain capable of human-to-human transmission.

--IANS