Spain on Monday said it took “all measures” to prevent hantavirus from spreading among evacuees on a cruise ship hit by the virus, after French and US nationals tested positive.
A complex repatriation operation from the Canary Islands on Sunday flew out 94 passengers and crew members of 19 different nationalities from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, which had been at the centre of an international alert after three passengers died.
Medical teams escorted travellers to an airport on Tenerife under close supervision and after thorough sanitary checks. However, French and US authorities have since reported positive hantavirus tests involving one evacuee each.
“From the start, all the measures adopted have aimed at cutting the possible chains of transmission… all measures for prevention and control of transmission have been applied,” the Spanish Health Ministry said in a statement.
It said the French patient “started to feel unwell during the flight and not while she was on the ship.”
The US citizen who tested positive “did not show symptoms while in Cape Verde,” where the MV Hondius stopped before reaching the Canary Islands, the ministry added.
“However, the US authorities have decided to treat the case as positive. For that reason, they requested a separate evacuation, which was carried out in a separate boat.”
Two more repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands were scheduled for Monday to complete the evacuation of most of the nearly 150 passengers and crew members.
After refuelling, the ship was expected to depart for the Netherlands at 7:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) with a skeleton crew.
“There are still some citizens from the Netherlands and Australia, and hopefully we can even finish before the scheduled time,” Spanish minister Angel Victor Torres told public radio RNE.
No vaccines or specific treatments currently exist for hantavirus, a known but rare illness that usually spreads among rodents.
Health officials have insisted that the risk to global public health remains low and have dismissed comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Punch Newspapers
