Spain agrees to let hantavirus-stricken cruise ship dock in Canary Islands as deadly outbreak kills three and spreads panic at sea
The Spanish government announced on Tuesday that it will allow the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak to dock at one of its ports in the Canary Islands.
At least three people who were on the cruise have died. Three others infected by the virus who remained on board without proper medical attention were taken to shore by boat Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported.
Video from the agency showed a red-and-white boat, with crew members on deck covered in white personal protective equipment jumpsuits, voyage to the cruise ship Hondius and then head to shore before sunset.
The three patients, two of whom are crew members, were expected to be airlifted to medical facilities abroad. The Spanish government said the Netherlands requested it immediately receive one of them, identified only as a medical doctor.
The Dutch operator of the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions, said the Netherlands would accept all three.
The government of Spain said the ship will soon head to the Canary Islands, roughly 950 miles northeast, where the roughly 145 people left on board will be able to disembark, undergo medical checks, and ultimately depart without making contact with members of the public.
“The World Health Organization has explained that Cape Verde cannot carry out this operation,” the Spanish government said. “The Canary Islands are the closest location with the necessary capabilities. Spain has a moral and legal obligation to assist these people, among whom are several Spanish citizens.”
World Health Organization officials said there have been two laboratory-confirmed cases and five suspected cases of hantavirus on board the vessel.
The ship was amid an icy waters cruise of the lowest reaches of the South Atlantic last month when passengers started getting sick and it headed for the African nation of Cape Verde, where officials denied it entry. The Hondius, an ice-strengthened cruise ship, has remained anchored off Cape Verde.
The Spanish government said Tuesday that the vessel and those on board would begin a three- to four-day journey to the Canary Islands, with the exact port destination still to be determined.
After the patients are evacuated, the ship "will begin repositioning" with plans to travel to either Gran Canaria or Tenerife. Once in the Canary Islands, the Spanish government said, passengers and crew members will be examined and transferred to their respective countries, with the process using safety precautions and "a common case and contact management protocol developed by the WHO and the ECDC [European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control]."
Tests are ongoing in South Africa on the nature of the infection, but WHO experts suspect it is the Andes variant, which is transmissible from person to person.
Some rare human-to-human transmission of the virus may have taken place on the luxury cruise ship, the WHO said in an update.
“We do believe there may be some human-to-human transmissions happening, among very close contact. ... That’s our working assumption,” Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and technical adviser to the WHO, said at a news briefing. “Some people on the ship were couples; they were sharing rooms, so that’s quite intimate contact.”
Hantavirus is predominantly spread by rodents and their droppings, experts say, but the WHO said it had been informed that there were no rats on the ship.
One of the sickened crew members had mild symptoms and the other severe, Oceanwide Expeditions said in a news release. They both require urgent medical care, the company said.
Oceanwide Expeditions said that the virus was identified in a Dutch woman who had disembarked in Saint Helena. The passenger later died on April 27, the news release stated.
Van Kerkhove said the WHO’s working assumption was that the 69-year-old woman and her 70-year-old husband were infected on the boat. The third person who died was a German national, officials have said.
The Dutch-flagged Hondius is just outside Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde in West Africa, after that country refused its request to dock there. According to the ship-tracking site MarineTraffic, the Hondius has not moved since at least Monday morning.
The cruise ship company said that most passengers are "generally composed" and the vibe on the vessel is "calm."
"Oceanwide Expeditions is working to provide clarity and reassurance to guests and expedite their disembarkation and medical screening. Oceanwide Expeditions team members are working diligently to support all individuals on board and uphold stringent health and safety procedures as part of Oceanwide Expeditions’ SHIELD response plan," the company said.
One passenger on the ship made an emotional video pleading for answers.
"All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity, and to get home," Jake Rosmarin said.
Health workers get off the MV Hondius on Monday after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. via Qasem Elhato / AP
Oceanwide Expeditions had said earlier that it planned to sail to Las Palmas or Tenerife, where further medical screenings could take place. It can’t move, however, until one British and one Dutch crew member are airlifted to a hospital in the Netherlands for urgent medical care, the WHO said.
"The plan is to medevac those two individuals. That’s in the works; that’s underway. The plan is for the ship to continue to the Canary Islands. We’re speaking to the Spanish authorities," Van Kerkhove said at the news briefing.
The evacuation is being organized by the Dutch government and will involve specialist aircraft.
The Spanish Health Ministry said it would send a team of epidemiologists to the ship on Tuesday to assess people on board. "This will help with decisions regarding repatriation processes and the ship’s route," the ministry said.
Contact tracing is underway to identify those who left the ship during its voyage and those they may have come into contact with.
The MV Hondius cruise ship stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on Tuesday.AFP via Getty Images
The ship set off from Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on April 1 and stopped at multiple remote locations, including mainland Antarctica and the Atlantic islands of Tristan da Cunha and St. Helena.
In a lengthy summary of what is known about the outbreak, the WHO said passengers and crew began to feel ill between April 6 and 28, with the symptoms including “fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, rapid progression to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.”
An unidentified British man is being treated in an intensive care unit in Johannesburg, South Africa. This patient was evacuated from Ascension Island in the Atlantic, one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth.
Signaling the likely direction of an ongoing investigation, the WHO said the "extent of passenger contact with local wildlife during the voyage, or prior to boarding in Ushuaia, remains undetermined."
Passengers took part in a range of activities while visiting destinations, including bird-watching, but it’s not known exactly what the current patients and the three who died did prior to their infections.
This is the first outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship, Van Kerkhove said, adding that there is no known treatment. Patients are offered "supportive" care such as breathing aids.
Strict isolation and hygiene protocols are being followed by the 88 passengers and 59 crew on board, including 17 Americans.
Addressing those still isolating on the Hondius, she said: "We have heard from people on the ship, we hear you, we know you are scared."
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