Cruise Ship with Hantavirus Approaches Tenerife: Residents Fear for Safety
The Spanish government has reached an agreement with the WHO allowing passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius, where a hantavirus outbreak has been reported, to disembark at the port of Granadilla in southeastern Tenerife this weekend.
This decision has sparked outrage among some port workers in Tenerife, who gathered outside the Canary Islands Parliament in Santa Cruz to express their concerns about the health threat posed by the ship's imminent arrival. Reports indicate they protested with whistles, vuvuzelas, and banners.
The vessel arrived from Cape Verde, where three individuals were evacuated due to illness.
Spanish authorities are preparing to receive over 140 passengers and crew members from the virus-affected cruise ship; health representatives stated that the evacuation will be conducted with all necessary precautions.
The Spanish Minister of Health described this operation as "unprecedented," as the evacuation must be completed within 24 hours of the ship's arrival in Tenerife on Sunday; otherwise, authorities warned that bad weather could delay it for several days.
On the same day, a representative of the regional government stated that the only window of opportunity would open around noon on Sunday and last until weather conditions change on Monday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has agreed to send a plane for the repatriation of about seventeen U.S. citizens still aboard.
According to clinic representatives, these passengers will be quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. None of them are showing symptoms of illness.
Doctors will determine the length of the quarantine after examining the passengers.
The specialized biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha has previously been used to treat Ebola patients and some of the first COVID-19 patients.
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Nebraska Medicine is one of the few hospitals in the U.S. with specialized units for treating highly dangerous infectious diseases.
What has happened so far?
As a result of the outbreak on board, three people have died: a married couple from the Netherlands and a German citizen. Four others, including two British citizens, have confirmed infections. They are being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa, and Switzerland.
On Friday, authorities in the UK and Spain reported that they are investigating two possible new cases of infection. One involves a British citizen on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, where the cruise ship made a stop on April 15. The second involves a woman who flew on the same flight as the Dutch patient who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the MV Hondius and contracting the virus. She is currently hospitalized in the eastern Spanish province of Alicante.
"As of May 8, eight cases of illness have been reported, including three fatalities (fatality rate 38%). Six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as infections caused by hantavirus, and all have identified the Andes virus (ANDV)," the WHO stated.
"The WHO assesses the risk to the global population associated with this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update risk assessments."
"The risk to passengers and crew aboard the ship is considered moderate," the WHO added.
It is estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 cases of hantavirus infection are reported worldwide each year. Despite being identified several decades ago, this virus is increasingly regarded as a new viral threat due to periodically emerging outbreaks and high mortality rates associated with some of its variants.
