In a bid to calm fears on the Spanish island of Tenerife, the World Health Organization’s chief delivered a reassuring message on Saturday concerning the impending arrival of a cruise ship affected by hantavirus.
The MV Hondius, sailing under the Dutch flag and carrying over 140 passengers and crew, is charting a course for Spain’s Canary Islands, located near West Africa. It is anticipated to reach Tenerife by early Sunday morning.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, alongside Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, plans to visit the island on Saturday. Their mission is to oversee the safe disembarkation of the ship’s passengers and some crew members.
Island residents have expressed apprehension about the vessel docking, worried about potential virus transmission. Meanwhile, some Spanish passengers aboard the cruise have shared their concerns about the reception they might face once ashore.
Addressing the people of Tenerife directly, Tedros acknowledged their worries: “I understand your concerns. The term ‘outbreak’ and the sight of a ship approaching can revive memories we have yet to fully leave behind. The events of 2020 are still fresh, and I respect that completely.”
Tedros emphasized, “Let me be clear: This situation is not akin to COVID. The hantavirus poses a low public health risk at present. My colleagues and I have consistently stated this, and I reaffirm it to you now.”
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, a virus which can cause life-threatening illness.
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide said Saturday that nobody on board the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
“WHO continues to actively monitor the situation, coordinate support and next steps and will keep Member States and the public updated accordingly. So far, the risk for the population of Canary Islands and globally remains low,” Tedros posted earlier on X.
Passengers can take only limited belongings and will be isolated
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife under strict health protocols.
Everyone disembarking will first be medically checked to ensure they are not showing any symptoms, while people will only be taken off the ship if a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the US and the UK have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.
Those disembarking will not take any luggage with them, Garcia said, and will be allowed to disembark with only a small item of hand luggage containing essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died onboard, will not disembark, Garcia said. They will remain on board as the Hondius then sets sail for the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, she said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for the evacuation
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for high-consequence infectious disease to be on standby.
If anyone falls ill, the medics on board the ship will inform Spanish authorities, and the evacuation plane “will be sent to Tenerife so that the sick person can be quickly transported by air to the European mainland.”
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said.
Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’s potential transmissibility.
The KLM flight attendant was working on a plane headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25 and had later fallen ill.
The cruise passenger briefly aboard that flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe and was taken off in Johannesburg, where she died.
