Updates
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The evacuation of passengers has now been completed, with repatriation flights delivering nationals to multiple countries. Of the 17 Americans flown to Omaha on a chartered flight, one tested mildly PCR-positive for the Andes strain without showing symptoms and another had mild symptoms; both were transported in the plane's biocontainment units and are being assessed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's regional emerging special pathogen treatment centre. A fifth country reported a concerning development when French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that one of the five French nationals developed symptoms mid-flight; all five were placed in strict isolation upon landing at Le Bourget Airport and taken by ambulance to Bichat hospital in Paris, where they face 72 hours of quarantine followed by 45 days of home isolation. Eight Dutch nationals and passengers from ten other countries flew to Eindhoven, with the Dutch government requiring six weeks of home quarantine, while British nationals were flown to Manchester with no symptoms reported, and Spain's 14 citizens are under mandatory quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.
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The MV Hondius arrived near Granadilla port before dawn on Sunday, completing a journey that began almost a month after the first passenger died aboard the vessel. Spanish authorities are enforcing a security perimeter of one nautical mile around the ship as it approaches the island, and Spain's health minister Mónica García has described the 23-country operation as "unprecedented." WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took the unusual step of publishing an open letter directly addressed to the people of Tenerife, acknowledging their anxieties while stressing that no passengers aboard are currently symptomatic and that a WHO expert is present on the ship. The president of the Canary Islands said he would not be calm until all passengers and crew had departed the region.
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The MV Hondius is expected to anchor off Granadilla port in southeastern Tenerife between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, where it will remain at anchor rather than dock. Passengers will be ferried ashore by small boat and transported in sealed vehicles to Tenerife South Airport, just ten minutes away, for repatriation on chartered flights with no contact with the local population; the United States and United Kingdom have both committed aircraft for their nationals, while Spain's 14 onboard citizens will be taken to a military facility. Authorities in the Canary Islands have warned that the entire evacuation must be completed within a narrow window around midday Sunday before worsening winds and swell force the ship back to sea — a delay that could push any renewed attempt to late May. Meanwhile, epidemiological investigators have identified a municipal landfill seven kilometres from downtown Ushuaia, frequented by birdwatchers attracted by scavenger species such as the white-throated caracara, as a likely exposure site; the Dutch couple who were the first passengers to fall ill had visited the landfill before boarding on 1 April after four months of overland travel through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
A rare outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius, a Dutch expedition cruise ship, has left three passengers dead, infected at least eight people across multiple countries, and triggered an international public health response. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the outbreak on 4 May and has since been coordinating monitoring and containment efforts as the vessel makes its way toward Tenerife, one of Spain's Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa, where it is expected to dock in the coming days.
The virus identified on board is the Andes virus, a strain of hantavirus found in South America and one of the few variants capable of spreading directly between humans. Health investigators believe the outbreak originated before anyone boarded the ship: passengers who had been touring Argentina and Chile for months are thought to have been exposed to infected rodents or their excrement during that period. Given the virus's incubation period — which can range from one to eight weeks — those individuals may have felt well when they boarded the vessel in Argentina on 1 April, only to fall ill later and transmit the infection to others in the close quarters of the ship. There were no reports of rodents aboard the Hondius itself.
As the ship carries approximately 150 passengers from 23 countries, health authorities in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa are tracking those who disembarked before the outbreak was identified. Residents in three US states are also being monitored. Two British passengers — a 69-year-old man receiving intensive care at a private facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Martin Anstee, a 56-year-old expedition guide flown to the Netherlands — were medically evacuated from the ship. WHO officials said both the patient in South Africa and two patients in the Netherlands were showing signs of improvement. In Amsterdam, a flight attendant who briefly came into contact with a passenger was hospitalised with possible symptoms, illustrating how far the monitoring net has had to be cast.
The WHO has been careful to frame the risk to the broader public as low. Hantavirus is not as contagious as diseases like Covid-19, and transmission typically requires close, sustained contact. There are no vaccines and no specific cure; treatment is supportive only, focusing on managing symptoms such as severe lung inflammation, which can lead to heart and respiratory failure. New World hantaviruses like the Andes strain are fatal in roughly 40% of cases. Britons who were on board are being advised to self-isolate for 45 days given the maximum potential incubation period. The UK Foreign Office is arranging charter flights for British nationals currently on the ship who are not displaying symptoms.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that additional cases could still emerge given the lengthy incubation window, but stressed that the organisation does not anticipate a wider epidemic.
This article was automatically compiled by AI from the sources above. It may contain inaccuracies. Always read the original sources for the full context.
