Medical evacuation flight lands at Schiphol Airport with potentially infected patient (Image: MICHEL VAN BERGEN/EPA/Shutterstock)
Authorities are racing against time to track down passengers who may have been in contact with the MV Hondius. The cruise ship is at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak which has seen three people die after falling ill.
Authorities fear that as many as 40 passengers may have left the ship early in St Helena before travelling across the world. A Spanish passenger still onboard the vessel told the El Pais newspaper: “There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them. The Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes.”
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As many as 40 passengers disembarked the vessel early (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
It has been reported that one passenger, who left the ship early and flew home to Switzerland with his wife, has already tested positive for the virus and is being treated in Zurich.
Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said “for the broader public, not directly involved in this cruise ship, the risk here is really negligible”.
But he told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that those British passengers on the ship who are now on their way to Tenerife will be flown home and asked to self-isolate, most likely at home, for a period of 45 days.
Prof May explained that hantaviruses as a group are widespread around the world.
“This one, in particular, the Andean strain, is the only one for which there is some evidence in the past of human to human transmission, and so that’s obviously our primary focus here,” he said.
He added it has been studied intently because it is “such a severe disease” and there are efforts globally to try to develop vaccines against it.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Wednesday the Foreign Office is “working urgently” to help get Britons “safely home with proper protection for public health”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting added: “The outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius will be worrying many.
“The Government are taking this incredibly seriously and are working urgently to support the British nationals involved.”
Health personnel assisting patients onto a boat from the cruise ship (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Three passengers have died on the MV Hondius following the hantavirus outbreak.
Despite concerns from locals and officials, Spanish authorities have given permission for the ship to dock in the Canary Islands.
About 150 people are still on the cruise ship under “strict precautionary measures”, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.
Three people were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday to the Netherlands for treatment, including Mr Anstee.
On Monday, health officials in South Africa confirmed a British man, understood to be aged 69, is in a critical condition with hantavirus and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The Associated Press reported the Argentine government’s hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a birdwatching outing in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
Two Argentine officials told the news agency that the couple visited a landfill during the birdwatching tour where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.
Passengers have been are confined to their cabins while “disinfection and other public health measures are carried out”, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.
