Photo credit: Misper Apawu/AP
MADRID – Spanish authorities are preparing to receive over 140 passengers and crew members from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship bound for the Canary Islands, where careful evacuations will be conducted.
The ship is expected to arrive at the Spanish island of Tenerife over the weekend.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services.
The MV Hondius is a Dutch-flagged vessel, and Dutch officials are coordinating closely with the ship’s owner and relevant authorities.
The United States is sending a plane to repatriate its 17 citizens from the cruise ship, while the British government is chartering a plane for the nearly two dozen British citizens onboard.
Three passengers have died, and others are sick, but the risk to the public is considered low by the World Health Organization.
Hantavirus is typically spread through contaminated rodent droppings and doesn’t easily transmit between people. Symptoms can develop between one to eight weeks after exposure.
Currently, none of the remaining passengers or crew members show symptoms, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise ship company.
Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked
Health authorities worldwide are working to locate and monitor passengers who left the ship before the outbreak was detected, as well as those who may have come into contact with them subsequently.
It took until May 2 for health authorities to confirm hantavirus in a ship passenger, according to the WHO.
Efforts are underway to trace contacts of passengers who had interactions with an infected cruise passenger on a flight from South Africa to Amsterdam.
British health officials suspect a third national has contracted hantavirus on Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory.
Authorities in South Africa are tracing contacts of passengers who disembarked on April 25, focusing on a flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg.
