Four Australians aboard the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak are expected to return home on Tuesday. The news comes after the MV Hondius docked at the Spanish Island of Tenerife carrying 147 people on Sunday morning. Passengers were seen being ferried in small boats from the cruise ship anchored at the Port of Granadilla to the island. After reaching the island, disembarked passengers filed onto waiting buses, to be taken to the airport.
Since the vessel departed Argentina last month, the deaths of three people have been linked to hantavirus — a rare disease typically caused by exposure to infected rodents’ urine or faeces — while others have been evacuated from the ship for medical treatment.
An Australian government-supported charter flight will depart Tenerife about 5pm local time on Monday (1am Tuesday AEST) and will have medical staff aboard to monitor the passengers and provide assistance. 7NEWS understands none of the six people to be transported on the flight — including one New Zealand citizen and an Australian permanent resident — are displaying symptoms of the virus. The five returning to Australia live in NSW and Queensland.
“The Australian Government’s number one priority is the safety of passengers and the Australian community,” a government spokesperson said. “Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade consular officers on the ground in Tenerife and in Canberra have been closely coordinating response efforts. The Australian Government is working closely with state authorities to coordinate arrival, health and transport arrangements. Quarantine and health arrangements are managed by states in accordance with their public health requirements.”
Several other nations — including the US, Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands — are sending aircraft to evacuate their nationals who were on the ship. A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said that 17 American passengers — none of whom have symptoms — will be transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which is home to the National Quarantine Unit, a federally funded facility. After briefly being assessed at the unit, the passengers will then be able to undergo home-based monitoring over the next 42 days, the official said, with monitoring expected to be at least daily.
The hantavirus outbreak was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2 and remains a low risk to the general public, the WHO said. The ship and its crew are scheduled to continue to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the crew will disembark and the ship will be disinfected.
