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.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to the South American nation almost a year after she secretly left the countr...
Uzbekistan summoned Iran’s ambassador following claims by several Iranian diplomatic missions that the historical and architectural heri...
Kazakhstan marks Republic Day on 25 October with an ambitious economic agenda and a growing partnership with Azerbaijan, as the two Caspian neighbo...
Around 11,000 people joined a demonstration in Orléans on Saturday against the National Rally congress, according to the local prefecture.
Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan on Saturday, leaving one person dead and more than 500 injured as strong winds and torrential rain brought down trees, cut power and disrupted transport across the island.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday described a deadly shooting in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, west of Paris, as a racist attack and ‘a turning point’ for the country.
Israeli forces have maintained a tight closure on Hebron in the occupied West Bank for a second day, with Palestinian media reporting home raids, mass detentions and dozens of residents forced outside following a shooting incident the day before.
Foreign ministers meeting in Istanbul on Friday warned that renewed military strikes on Iran could deepen the regional conflict, urging diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to the South American nation almost a year after she secretly left the country to travel to Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in France’s largest cities and more than 1,300 people were arrested during demonstrations against the rising cost of living on Saturday (24 October). Police also used a water cannon on a group of around 500 hooded youths in Paris, after the main rally ended.
Ukraine's military has been hit this month by restrictions on Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite communications system. Its receivers stopped functioning when mounted on fast-moving objects such as drones, jeopardising some combat and air defence missions.
At least five people were killed and several others injured in overnight attacks across Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, 25 October, as officials reported strikes on residential areas and industrial facilities, while Moscow claimed to have targeted logistics infrastructure and a cargo vessel.
Protests against war and rising living costs took place in major Italian cities on Saturday, with some incidents of violence and clashes, a week after unrest erupted across the country.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment