A hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius has prompted an international evacuation and tracing effort, with a U.S. passenger testing positive and a French traveller developing symptoms as people who were aboard the ship return to their home countries.
The vessel anchored near Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, and passengers began leaving on military and government flights. Three people linked to the outbreak have died, at least one person is in intensive care, and health officials are still trying to determine where the first exposure occurred. The World Health Organization has said the risk to people on Tenerife and to the broader public is low, but passengers are being tested, isolated or monitored because the incubation period can stretch for weeks.
Where investigators are looking
There is no confirmed origin. The clearest trail so far leads to Argentina, where the MV Hondius departed on April 1. The first people known to develop symptoms were an elderly Dutch couple aboard the ship, and they are among the fatalities, but officials have not established whether they were the first to be infected.
The strain at issue is the Andes strain of hantavirus, which is found mostly in Argentina and Chile and is the only known hantavirus strain that can spread from person to person, although such transmission is considered rare. Most hantavirus infections are linked to exposure to infected rodents, typically through contaminated urine, droppings or saliva that become airborne.
Local media in Argentina have reported that the Dutch couple visited a landfill area in Ushuaia, a southern Patagonian city and major departure point for Antarctic expeditions, while looking for a rare bird. Officials in Ushuaia have said that explanation is unlikely because the area has not recorded a hantavirus case since 1996. Other experts cited in reporting have cautioned that environmental checks are still needed, and Argentinian health officials have planned sampling of rats near the landfill.
Investigators are also examining the couple’s wider travel in South America. Reporting cited by Al Jazeera said they had travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before the cruise. Chilean authorities confirmed the couple had been in the country but said the timing did not match the incubation period for an exposure there. Uruguay’s Ministry of Public Health said there was no transmission risk tied to the couple’s stay because their symptoms began after they left the country.
Where passengers have gone
Passengers from more than 20 countries were being flown out of Tenerife. Spanish passengers were sent first to a military hospital in Madrid, and Norway sent an ambulance plane for its citizens. At least one of 17 U.S. passengers evacuated from the ship tested positive while showing no symptoms, U.S. health officials said; a plane carrying American passengers was due to arrive Monday in Omaha, Nebraska, where they were to be quarantined.
France has also become part of the widening response. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said one of five French passengers developed symptoms on the flight home Sunday and that the woman’s condition later deteriorated in Paris. France’s prime minister said all five French passengers were being isolated “until further notice.”
Other passengers are being monitored or quarantined across several countries. A Japanese national travelled to the United Kingdom on a British-arranged flight and is expected to be monitored for up to 45 days, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. British authorities said passengers would be quarantined in hospital for 72 hours and then self-isolate for six weeks. In the Netherlands, an evacuation plane carrying 26 people from different countries landed in Eindhoven, with Dutch citizens told to self-quarantine at home for six weeks. German authorities said four Germans transported from the Netherlands to Frankfurt University Hospital had not tested positive.
Health officials are also tracing people who left the ship earlier. At least 34 passengers and crew had disembarked before May 2, when the WHO first received reports of severe respiratory illness on the ship while it was off Cape Verde. One suspected case is on Tristan da Cunha, the remote South Atlantic British territory, where British army medics parachuted in with personnel, supplies and oxygen. Other patients have been reported in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Why the response is broad
Hantaviruses are a family of viruses, not a single disease. They are usually acquired through close contact with infected rodents or contaminated material. The Andes strain is different because it can, rarely, spread between people through close, prolonged contact with someone who has symptoms. WHO official Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told the BBC: “We’re not talking about casual contact from very far away from one another.”
That distinction is driving the public-health response. The WHO has recommended that governments involved test and monitor passengers for at least 42 days after suspected exposure. Experts cited by the BBC said isolation of infected patients, handwashing, contact tracing and infection-control measures are central to stopping transmission.
There is no widely available vaccine against hantavirus and no specific treatment for infection, though early medical support can improve survival. For now, the main unresolved questions are where the first exposure happened and whether monitoring of passengers and earlier contacts reveals additional cases.
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