TENERIFE, Spain — The cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak arrived early Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife, where the process of returning passengers to their home countries will begin.
The ship, the MV Hondius, could be seen in the distance around 5:30 a.m. local time Sunday (12:30 a.m. ET) from the port of Granadilla, where a medical tent was set up for the night.
The Hondius carried six passengers with confirmed cases of hantavirus and two with suspected cases, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Three of those people died, officials said, including two who died aboard the ship.
After disembarkation, the passengers – all asymptomatic – will be brought ashore on small boats, where they will undergo a medical examination before boarding repatriation flights, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the WHO, said on Saturday.
The 17 Americans still aboard the Hondius will be flown to the United States and will be observed at the National Quarantine Unit, a facility on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha that specializes in treating patients with very dangerous communicable diseases, the medical center said.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” said Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine. said in a statement Friday.
The Spanish, British and French governments prepared for their nationals on the ship to return to those countries and be quarantined or isolated.
The Dutch ship, accompanied by some of the crew and passengers’ luggage, will continue its five-day journey to Rotterdam, Netherlands, according to cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions.
The body of a person who died on board will also remain on the ship, which will undergo a disinfection process in the Netherlands, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said.
Health officials have stressed that the risk to the global population and to residents of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, is low.
In a message to the people of Tenerife On Saturday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus raised concerns about the risk of spread.
“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I’m not dismissing it for a moment,” Tedros said. “But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said it unequivocally, and I will repeat it to you now. »
People contract hantavirus through contact with rodents, including exposure to their urine, feces, and saliva. The origin of the first case “suggests possible exposure to rodents during bird watching activities,” the WHO said.
From the group of viruses, only the Andes — the strain in the Hondius case — is known to spread between people, but those people usually have very close contact with each other, according to the WHO.
On May 2, a month after the ship left Ushuaia, Argentina, “a group of passengers suffering from serious respiratory illnesses” on board was reported to the WHO. the health organization said.
At that time, the ship had 147 passengers and crew, but 34 passengers and crew had already disembarked, the WHO said.
The report came weeks after the first death, a Dutchman who died on board on April 11. At that time, “the cause of death was unknown and there was no evidence of a virus or contagion on board,” Oceanwide Expeditions said.
His wife died in a South African clinic on April 26, the WHO said.
The third death, a German woman, occurred on board on May 2, according to WHO and Oceanwide Expeditions.
Two days later, hantavirus was confirmed in a passenger who was medically evacuated to a hospital in South Africa, the company said.
Hantavirus can have a mortality rate of around 40 to 50 percent, according to the WHO, and older people are particularly at risk. The average age of those on board the ship is 65, the statement said.
Phil Helsel reported from Los Angeles, and Mo Abbas and Daniele Hamamdjian from Tenerife.