Spanish emergency officials are making final preparations to handle the arrival of a cruise vessel carrying more than 140 individuals aboard the hantavirus-affected MV Hondius, which is approaching the Canary Islands for urgent medical evacuations.
The ship is anticipated to dock at Tenerife, located off West Africa’s coast, either Saturday or Sunday, according to Spanish authorities.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” Virginia Barcones, Spain’s emergency services director, stated Thursday.
Barcones explained that Spain is working with multiple nations to coordinate evacuation procedures for their citizens currently on the vessel.
American officials have committed to dispatching an aircraft to the Canary Islands to transport 17 U.S. nationals from the cruise ship, she confirmed. British authorities have similarly announced plans to charter a flight for evacuating approximately 24 British passengers still aboard the MV Hondius.
The outbreak has claimed at least three lives, with additional individuals reported ill. However, the World Health Organization has assessed the threat to the general population as minimal.
The virus typically spreads through breathing in contaminated rodent waste particles and does not easily pass from person to person. Initial symptoms generally appear between one to eight weeks following exposure.
Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operator, reported Thursday that no remaining passengers or crew members are currently showing symptoms.
Medical officials spanning four continents continue efforts to locate and monitor passengers who left the vessel before the fatal outbreak was identified, while attempting to trace individuals who may have contacted them subsequently.
On April 24, nearly two weeks following the first passenger death aboard the ship, more than 24 people from at least 12 nations departed the vessel without proper contact tracing, according to the ship’s operator and Dutch officials who spoke Thursday.
Friday brought news from U.K. health authorities of a third British citizen suspected of contracting the hantavirus.
The U.K. Health Security Agency reported the suspected case is located on Tristan da Cunha, an isolated British territory in the south Atlantic where the vessel made a stop during April.
Officials have not released information regarding the individual’s medical status.
Two additional British nationals from the cruise have received confirmed hantavirus diagnoses. One remains hospitalized in the Netherlands while the other is receiving treatment in South Africa.
South African health officials are also working to identify contacts of passengers who previously departed the ship. Their focus has centered primarily on an April 25 flight traveling from St. Helena to Johannesburg, occurring one day after passengers disembarked at that location.
