Emergency Crews Evacuate Three From MV Hondius After Hantavirus Outbreak Off Cape Verde

Emergency crews evacuated three people from the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship anchored off Cape Verde, after a deadly hantavirus outbreak was reported aboard, the World Health Organization said.

“Emergency crews have evacuated three people from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, the United Nations’ health agency says, as experts confirm it to be a rare strain that can be transmitted between humans”

Al Jazeera

Two sick crew members and one other person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases were removed on Wednesday, and the evacuees later boarded flights at the airport in Praia.

Al Jazeera

The ship, carrying about 150 people from 23 countries, was set to leave for Spain on Wednesday after the evacuation, with Spain’s interior ministry saying the evacuation of passengers will start in the archipelago from May 11.

The BBC reported that the ship has begun a three-day journey to the Canary Islands after three people died since it set sail from Argentina a month ago.

The outbreak centered on the Andes strain, which the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases said can, in rare cases, spread among people, according to Al Jazeera.

The BBC said health experts were carrying out contact tracing on the flight taken by a Dutch woman who left the MV Hondius when it stopped at the island of St Helena on 24 April, after her husband died on board on 11 April.

AP News

WHO official Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told the BBC that the way hantavirus is transmitted “is very different than COVID and flu,” emphasizing that “really physical contact” is required.

The BBC also reported that the WHO said eight cases of hantavirus—three confirmed and five suspected—have so far been identified in people who were on the ship, while Spain’s health minister Mónica García said all those on board have no symptoms.

As the MV Hondius headed toward the Canary Islands, the Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said regional authorities could not allow the ship to enter, telling Spain’s Onda Cero radio, “I cannot allow [the boat] to enter the Canaries.”

“How a deadly hantavirus outbreak unfolded on a cruise ship for weeks before it was identified How a deadly hantavirus outbreak unfolded on a cruise ship for weeks before it was identified CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A deadly outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over the course of weeks on a cruise ship that sailed from Argentina toward Antarctica and then across the Atlantic Ocean, stopping at or near remote islands on the way as passengers and crew members fell sick, according to information from the cruise operator, the World Health Organization and ship tracking data”

AP News

The BBC reported that Spain’s health minister Mónica García said the evacuation would “avoid contact” with Canary Island citizens and that there would be “no risk” to them when it arrives in Tenerife in the coming days.

Libertad Digital described Moncloa documents saying Cape Verde lacked the technical or human resources to manage the health emergency and that the Canary Islands were the closest point with the necessary capabilities.

Libertad Digital also said the plan contemplates hospitalizing only those who develop symptoms during the final leg and that Spanish passengers would be transferred by military aircraft to the Torrejón de Ardoz base and then to the Gómez Ulla Hospital in Madrid for quarantine under medical supervision.