SouthernWorldwide.com – A cruise ship experiencing a hantavirus outbreak has arrived at Spain’s Canary Islands, where a complex evacuation process for passengers and most of the crew is set to begin.
The MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged vessel carrying nearly 150 individuals from over 15 different countries, including 17 Americans, docked at the port of Granadilla on Tenerife. Spain had previously agreed to allow the ship to berth.
Footage from Reuters depicted the ship nearing the port of Granadilla, escorted by a vessel from the Spanish Civil Guard, as reported by Agence France-Presse journalists.
The World Health Organization has stated that, as of now, no one currently on board is exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
The outbreak has been linked to at least nine confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus, tragically resulting in three fatalities: a Dutch couple and a German woman.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the operator of the MV Hondius, has announced that all passengers and a portion of the approximately 60 crew members will commence their evacuation on Sunday. This will be conducted using launch boats with a capacity of five to ten people each.
The entire evacuation operation is being coordinated by the WHO in conjunction with several other health organizations. Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, had traveled to Tenerife in anticipation of the ship’s arrival.
Following the disembarkation of these individuals, a reduced skeleton crew will resupply the ship and then embark on the approximately five-day journey to Rotterdam, Netherlands, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.
The American passengers will be transported back to the United States via a plane dispatched by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The CDC has confirmed that a team of epidemiologists and medical professionals is being deployed to the Canary Islands. Their mission will be to conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger and to provide guidance on the necessary level of monitoring.
The medical repatriation flight is scheduled to land at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. From there, the American passengers will be transferred to a specialized biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Michael Wadman, the medical director of the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, stated that each American individual will be provided with their own room during their quarantine period, the duration of which has not yet been specified.
Hantaviruses, as defined by the CDC, are a group of diseases transmitted to humans from rodents. This transmission occurs through contact with rodent urine, droppings, or saliva. Symptoms can take up to eight weeks to manifest after exposure.
The WHO has indicated that the Andes strain, prevalent in Latin America, is the sole known strain capable of human-to-human transmission. Dr. Ghebreyesus has assessed the public risk associated with this outbreak as “low,” an assessment echoed by acting CDC director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
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“Hantavirus is not spread by people without symptoms, transmission requires close contact, and the risk to the American public is very low,” Dr. Bhattacharya stated in a release on Wednesday.
The origin of the current outbreak is still under investigation. However, prior to boarding the ship, the Dutch couple who succumbed to the virus, a 70-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife, are believed to have undertaken a bird-watching expedition across Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. These regions are known habitats for the rodent species that carries the Andes virus, according to Dr. Ghebreyesus.
The male victim developed symptoms on April 6 and passed away on the ship on April 11. At the time, samples were not collected as his symptoms were similar to those of other respiratory viruses, and hantavirus was not initially suspected, the WHO reported.
His wife subsequently went ashore when the ship made a stop at the British territorial island of St. Helena. She exhibited severe symptoms during a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 25 and passed away in South Africa the following day. Testing later confirmed she had contracted hantavirus, according to the WHO.
The German woman began showing symptoms on April 28 and died aboard the ship on May 2, the WHO stated.
Three other patients were airlifted from the ship to the Netherlands for urgent medical treatment this week. A Swiss man who developed symptoms after disembarking the vessel is currently receiving care in Zurich.
A British man was medically evacuated to South Africa, while another British national, who had also disembarked, is hospitalized on Tristan da Cunha, a British territory.
Oceanwide Expeditions reported that 32 passengers from approximately a dozen countries had disembarked the Hondius at St. Helena, including the Dutch woman who later died. American passengers who had returned to the U.S. before the outbreak was identified are currently under monitoring by state health agencies in California, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, and Arizona.
The MV Hondius began its cruise on April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina. The itinerary included stops at several South Atlantic islands, such as South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, and St. Helena from April 21 to April 24.
The vessel subsequently anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, an archipelago situated off the western coast of Africa, for several days before proceeding to the Canary Islands.
Emily Mae Czachor and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
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