Hantavirus Cruise Ship Reaches Tenerife in Multi-Nation Evacuation
CNN reported Sunday that the hantavirus cruise ship MV Hondius reached the Port of Granadilla in the Canary Islands early in the morning. The vessel carries 147 passengers caught up in a deadly outbreak that has now claimed three lives. Officials from multiple governments are coordinating a phased disembarkation operation.
Hazmat Teams Board Ship at Sunrise
Small patrol vessels with flashing lights met the MV Hondius as it anchored offshore at dawn. Personnel in hazmat suits and officials wearing World Health Organization insignia lined the dockside. Spain’s health minister Mónica García confirmed that medical teams had boarded the ship to screen passengers and crew before any disembarkation began.
Fourteen Spanish nationals are scheduled to leave the vessel first. Passengers will come ashore in small boats capped at ten people each. Their luggage will remain on board for now and be returned separately, tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement.
What Is Hantavirus and How Did the Outbreak Begin
Hantavirus is a rare illness typically contracted through contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents. Three people connected to the voyage have died since the ship departed Argentina last month. A number of other passengers were evacuated at sea for treatment before the vessel reached Tenerife.
The disease does not spread easily between people, but the outbreak prompted authorities to treat the repatriation as a significant public health operation requiring careful staging.
US Passengers Headed to Nebraska Quarantine Unit
A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official confirmed that seventeen American passengers are on board. None are currently showing symptoms. They will be transferred to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, a federally funded facility equipped to handle such cases.
Following an initial assessment there, those passengers will move to home-based monitoring lasting 42 days. Daily check-ins are expected at minimum during that period.
Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands are among the nations dispatching aircraft to collect their nationals. Oceanwide said the sequence of disembarkations will be timed around the arrival of each repatriation flight, minimising time on the island for passengers awaiting transport.
Spanish authorities have stressed the ship will remain anchored at what they described as the safest possible distance from the main dock throughout the operation.
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