Hantavirus-struck cruise ship to continue to Spain after patients evacuated
by AFP, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/afp/ · TheJournal.ieLAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago
A PLANE BELIEVED to be carrying a passenger from a cruise ship struck by the deadly hantavirus landed in the Netherlands this evening after patients were evacuated from the vessel off Cape Verde.
Downplaying fears over the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius that has killed three people, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted it was not comparable to the Covid pandemic.
The WHO said emergency crews evacuated three people – two sick crew members and another person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases – from the ship, which later left its anchorage off Cape Verde.
The three evacuees later boarded flights at the airport in Cape Verde’s capital Praia.
One of the medical planes landed in Schipol Airport in Amerstam shortly before 7pm.
Another landed at Las Palmas in Spain’s Canary Islands earlier this afternoon, an AFP journalist there saw.
Spanish officials said that the plane was carrying two patients and had landed for technical reasons. Spain’s health ministry said the patients would need a new plane to travel on to the Netherlands.
The Swiss health ministry confirmed this morning that a former passenger on the ship has been hospitalised in Zurich and has tested positive for hantavirus.
“One person with a hantavirus infection is currently being treated at the University Hospital Zurich,” said a ministry statement.
It added that the man “returned to Switzerland after travelling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases”.
MV Hondius
Spain’s health minister earlier said the cruise ship hit by an outbreak of hantavirus will dock at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife “within three days”, despite opposition from the Canary Islands regional government.
“A joint system for health assessment and evacuation will be put in place to repatriate all passengers, unless their medical condition prevents it,” Monica García Gomez told a Madrid news conference.
Advertisement
She said the 14 Spanish nationals – including one crew member – on board the MV Hondius will be transferred to Madrid’s Gomez Ulla Military Hospital.
García said the government was monitoring the international alert “minute by minute” to take all steps to prevent any potential spread of the virus.
The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday, when the World Health Organisation was informed that the rare disease – usually spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva – was suspected of being behind the deaths of three of its passengers.
As others fell ill, passengers and crew have been in isolation after Cape Verde’s authorities barred the ship from docking. The ship is anchored just off the island nation’s capital, Praia.
Spain’s health ministry had said the WHO explained that the Canary Islands were “the closest place with the necessary capabilities” medically.
However, Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands, today said he has requested an urgent meeting with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez to discuss the issue.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Clavijo told Spanish radio station COPE, as reported by Reuters.
But García said she had been in “constant contact” with Clavijo and he would take part in all meetings.
A source close to the Canary Islands presidency earlier told AFP that a medical evacuation flight planned to transfer a doctor from the ship to the archipelago had been cancelled, without giving a reason.
The Dutch operator Oceanwide Expeditions earlier said it remains “in close and continual discussion with relevant authorities regarding our exact point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and a precise timeline”.
“We are unable to confirm the details of onward travel for guests at this stage. This is dependent on medical advice and the outcome of stringent screening procedures.
Human-to-human strain confirmed
Meanwhile, South Africa’s health minister has said the Andes strain of the hantavirus that is transmissible between humans has been confirmed in a passenger evacuated to the country from the stricken cruise ship.
“The preliminary tests show that, indeed, this is the Andes strain,” South Africa’s health minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a parliament committee.
“And it happens to be the only strain out of the 38 that is known to cause human to human transmission. But as we said, we want to repeat again, such transmission is very rare and only happens due to very close contact between people.”
The cruise, which set sail from Ushuaia in Argentina on 1 April destined for Cape Verde, counted 88 passengers and 59 crew members, with 23 nationalities on board, the WHO said.
Related Reads
Hantavirus: What to know about the potentially fatal disease and the outbreak on a cruise ship
Two Irish passengers aboard cruise ship hit by hantavirus outbreak
One of the dead, a Dutch woman, had left the ship at the Atlantic island of Saint Helena and flew to Johannesburg, where she died on 26 April.
Two hantavirus cases have been confirmed – including in one of the fatalities and a British passenger currently in intensive care in Johannesburg – with five further suspected cases, the WHO said.
Three of those seven have died; the one in Johannesburg was critically ill, and three still on board had reported milder symptoms, including one who is now asymptomatic, it said.
The WHO was trying to deduce how hantavirus had appeared on the ship, with the first person who died having developed symptoms on 6 April.
Human-to-human transmission has only been reported in previous outbreaks of one specific hantavirus called Andes virus, which circulates in South America.
WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters the virus species had yet to be confirmed but highlighted that WHO had been told “there are no rats on board” the ship.
Contact-tracing
The first two fatalities were a Dutch couple – a man who died on 11 April and his wife who died after she disembarked in Saint Helena to accompany his body.
The wife was suffering from “gastrointestinal symptoms” and “deteriorated” during a flight to Johannesburg on 25 April, the WHO said. She died the following day.
Efforts are under way to trace people on that flight, which South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew.
The South African authorities had asked the airline to notify the passengers that they must contact the health department, a representative, Karin Murray, told AFP.
Van Kerkhove said the typical incubation period for hantavirus was between one and six weeks, leading the WHO to believe that the Dutch couple, who had been travelling in South America, “were infected off the ship”.