Passengers begin evacuating from cruise ship hit by hantavirus

TENERIFE – Groups of passengers and crew disembarked on May 10 from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak to be evacuated to their respective countries, in a process overseen by global health officials and expected to last until May 11.

A first group of passengers, all Spanish nationals, disembarked onto a small boat from the ship and is headed to Tenerife’s Port of Granadilla, said Spain’s Health Ministry.

All passengers, none of whom was showing symptoms of the virus, were taken to Tenerife airport in military buses to be evacuated from the island in government planes sent by their respective countries, government officials said, emphasising that the passengers will have no contact with the public.

Planes for Spanish and French nationals have departed. Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, Turkey, Ireland and the US were listed by Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia as the next countries to evacuate their citizens, with the Dutch plane also due to take Germans, Belgians and Greeks.

A plane from Australia, which would transport its citizens as well as passengers from New Zealand and other unspecified Asian countries, was due to land on May 11 and depart by the afternoon, Ms Garcia said.

The luxury cruise ship left for Spain on May 6 from the coast of Cape Verde after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the EU asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers following detection of the hantavirus outbreak.

As a precautionary measure, all passengers on the MV Hondius are considered high-risk contacts, Europe’s public health agency said late on May 9 as part of its rapid scientific advice.

The agency said the first case may have been infected before boarding, possibly during travel in Argentina and Chile, with later spread likely occurring on the ship.

The WHO has recommended a 42-day quarantine period for passengers aboard the ship starting from May 10.

Spain’s Health Ministry added in a report that the ship had passed the appropriate health checks: “There are more than 500 cruise ships a year that come from Argentina and Chile, which is home to the virus, and yet an outbreak of this illness has never happened in European territory so the possibility it happens in relation to this ship is remote.”

It also said rodents had not been detected aboard the ship.

Health checks

“According to the information provided by the experts who boarded the ship, the hygiene and environmental conditions are appropriate, and they have not detected rodents so transmission by exposure to rodents on board is not likely,” the report read.

Passengers will not leave the boat until their allocated evacuation plane has arrived, Spanish officials said.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is in Tenerife to oversee the evacuation, said on May 10 that WHO experts were working alongside Spanish health officials to test the passengers.

One Spanish woman, who was suspected of contracting the virus after sharing a flight with one of the patients who later died, tested negative late on May 9.

The British military has parachuted a specialist team onto the remote island of Tristan da Cunha to provide medical support to the second suspected case, a British man who was a passenger on the ship and lives on the South Atlantic island.

Four patients remain hospitalised in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while a suspected case sent to Germany tested negative.

Thirty crew members will remain on board and sail to the Netherlands where the ship will be disinfected.

The WHO said on May 8 that eight people had fallen ill, including three who died – a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of these people are confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases, the WHO has said.

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but can, in rare cases, be transmitted person-to-person. The WHO has said the risk to the wider global population is low, but the risk to passengers and crew on the ship is moderate. REUTERS