Reuters
A US national on a repatriation flight tested positive for hantavirus while another showed mild symptoms after leaving a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of the virus, the US Department of Health said.
The two passengers who returned to the United States aboard the government charter plane traveled in “biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution,” the statement said.
The 17 U.S. citizens on board the flight will now undergo further screening at a medical facility in Nebraska.
They are among more than 90 passengers from the ship MV Hondius, now docked in the Spanish Canary Islands, who are being repatriated. Authorities say the risk of a major outbreak is very low.
Three passengers – a Dutch couple and a German woman – died after traveling on the ship. Two of them are confirmed to have carried the virus.
Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodentsbut human transmission of the Andean strain – which the World Health Organization (WHO) says was contracted by some passengers on the Dutch ship while in South America – is possible.
Symptoms may include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath.
In its statement released Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said all passengers “will undergo a clinical evaluation” at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Seven other American passengers have already returned and are being monitored in their home states.
A British national residing in the United States was evacuated with the 17 American passengers.
For his part, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the United States’ decision not to follow his organization’s guidelines regarding the hantavirus outbreak “could carry risks.”
The WHO recommended 42 days of isolation for those leaving the MV Hondius.
But Dr Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said he did not want to cause public panic, insisting that human-to-human transmission was rare and should not be treated like the Covid virus.
Cruise ship passengers were photographed wearing blue dresses, bouffant caps and medical masks as they disembarked at the port of Grandilla de Abona in Tenerife on Sunday.
French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said a French woman returning to the country had tested positive for the virus.
She told French media that the woman was self-isolating in Paris and her health was deteriorating.
The passenger was one of five French nationals on board the ship. French authorities have so far traced 22 contact cases.
The passengers landed at Manchester Airport on a chartered flight from Tenerife and were taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, to self-isolate for 72 hours. None of them reported symptoms.
Two other British nationals with confirmed cases are currently being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.
In Spain, 14 Spaniards flown to Madrid are now subject to mandatory quarantine in a military hospital. Two more evacuation flights are planned for Monday afternoon.
A separate flight with 26 passengers and crew – including eight Dutch nationals – arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday.
Six passengers are returning to Australia and 18 others will be flown to the Netherlands. Both planes are also carrying passengers from other countries that have not sent their own repatriation flights.
