Australia confirmed it will repatriate citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with quarantine on arrival. Spain, France are evacuating nationals as three deaths are confirmed. In the U.S., two passengers have been isolated after testing positive for the virus.
Spain said the final two evacuation flights for passengers from a cruise ship hit by an Andes hantavirus outbreak near Tenerife were due to depart on Monday.
Health Minister Mónica García said 94 passengers have already been evacuated. An Australian flight will carry six people, while a Dutch aircraft will take 18 passengers, including travellers from countries without their own repatriation plans.
Fourteen Spanish nationals were flown to Madrid earlier on Sunday and placed in quarantine at a military hospital.
The World Health Organisation says the outbreak has resulted in five confirmed cases, including three deaths. Passengers will be monitored for up to six weeks.
Seven cases of the Andes hantavirus have now been confirmed among people who were passengers on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.
The UN agency, which is responsible for international public health, added that a total of nine cases had now been reported. In total, three people have died in the outbreak.
German health authorities said on Monday that four people linked to the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius are being monitored in a special isolation unit at Frankfurt University Hospital after arriving in the country overnight.
A German health ministry spokesperson told Reuters the four individuals are currently showing no symptoms and will later be transferred to regional authorities in Berlin, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein for continued monitoring.
Frankfurt University Hospital said the group arrived between midnight and 1 a.m. local time and underwent medical examinations and laboratory testing in Frankfurt and Marburg.
“There are currently no indications of illness,” said Timo Wolf, head of the hospital’s special isolation ward for highly pathogenic infections.
The condition of a British man hospitalised in Johannesburg after contracting hantavirus aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius is gradually improving, a South African health ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
“The British patient is clinically improving, but still ill,” spokesperson Foster Mohale told Reuters. “This means his condition is improving, gradually so.”
The man was medically evacuated to South Africa on 27 April after developing fever, shortness of breath and signs of pneumonia. He left the hantavirus-hit vessel at Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean.
France’s Health Minister Stephanie Rist has confirmed that a French passenger aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius has tested positive for the virus.
The minister also said that authorities in France have so far identified 22 contact cases linked to the outbreak, as tracing efforts continue following the spread among passengers evacuated from the vessel.
One of 17 Americans being repatriated from the hantavirus-hit luxury cruise ship MV Hondius has tested mildly positive for the Andes strain of the virus, while a second passenger is showing mild symptoms, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Sunday.
All 17 U.S. citizens are being airlifted back to the United States, with the two symptomatic passengers travelling in the aircraft’s biocontainment units. The second passenger has not yet been confirmed as infected.
The U.S. State Department said passengers would be taken to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centre at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha, Nebraska, while the passenger with mild symptoms would be transferred to a second specialist treatment centre.
HHS said all passengers would undergo clinical assessments on arrival and receive care according to their condition.
Australia has said it will repatriate its citizens from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius following an outbreak of a deadly strain of hantavirus, with passengers to be placed in quarantine on arrival.
Environment Minister Murray Watt told ABC News that Australia had agreed to bring back “a small number of Australians” as well as one additional person of another nationality requiring medical treatment. The identity of the second individual was not disclosed.
It remains unclear whether any of those being repatriated are currently showing symptoms of the virus. Australia’s foreign ministry has not yet provided further details.
Spain and France have already evacuated their citizens from the vessel, which is anchored near Tenerife in the Canary Islands, while additional flights organised by Canada, the Netherlands, Türkiye, the UK, Ireland and the United States are expected to have departed by Sunday night local time.
Spain’s health minister said the final two evacuation flights (from Australia and the Netherlands) are scheduled to leave on Monday afternoon local time.
New Zealand said it was in ongoing talks with international partners over repatriation options for one national still aboard the ship. Health officials said domestic services were prepared to support quarantine arrangements if required.
The World Health Organisation said on Friday (8 May) that eight former passengers have fallen ill, six of them confirmed infections, with three deaths recorded.
The WHO has recommended a 42-day quarantine period for all passengers, although global health experts have urged calm, stressing the virus is significantly less contagious than COVID-19 and presents limited risk to the wider public.
The outbreak is believed to have first been identified on 2 May in Johannesburg, where a British man developed severe symptoms and was treated in intensive care following contact with another passenger who had earlier died.
The MV Hondius left Cape Verde on Wednesday (6 May) after the outbreak was detected, having travelled from southern Argentina across the South Atlantic before reaching the island nation.
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