WHO head will oversee evacuation of passengers, crew from hantavirus-stricken cruise ship
The head of the World Health Organisation arrived in Spain on Saturday to oversee the evacuation of more than 140 passengers and crew from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed to the Canary Islands.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would be heading to the Spanish island of Tenerife off the coast of West Africa, along with senior Spanish government officials, “to oversee safe disembarkation of the passengers, crew members and health experts.” The Dutch-flagged ship, the MV Hondius, is expected to arrive in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday. Tedros said that at this point, nobody on board the Hondius was showing symptoms of the virus.
“WHO continues to actively monitor the situation, coordinate support and next steps and will keep Member States and the public updated accordingly. So far, the risk for the population of Canary Islands and globally remains low,” he posted on X. Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said on Friday she would be heading to Tenerife with Tedros and Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska to coordinate the disembarkation.
Passengers will be isolated
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus. Both the US and the UK have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.
The head of Spain’s emergency services, Virginia Barcones, has said passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area” once they disembark.
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for high-consequence infectious disease to be on standby. In case anyone falls ill, the medics on board the ship will inform the Spanish authorities, and the evacuation plane will be sent to Tenerife so that the sick person can be quickly transported by air to the European mainland. The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said.
Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services. As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected.
On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’ potential transmissibility. The flight attendant’s negative result should ease concerns among the public, said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman.
