HEALTH officials worldwide are scrambling to contain a deadly virus outbreak linked to a cruise liner now headed for the Canary Islands.
MV Hondius operator Oceanwide Expeditions said 29 passengers disembarked the ship at St Helena on April 24, before the first hantavirus case was confirmed.
The travellers have since dispersed across the world, prompting authorities to launch a global hunt to trace both the Hondius passengers and anyone they may have come into contact with.
One passenger who disembarked the ship, a Swiss national, has since been admitted to a Zurich hospital with symptoms.
A French national who was not onboard reportedly contracted hantavirus after sharing a flight with an infected passenger, marking the first known case linked to someone outside the MV Hondius.
Another infected passenger, a 69-year-old Dutch woman, boarded an Airlink flight to Johannesburg on April 25 alongside 82 other passengers, all of whom authorities are now attempting to trace.
The woman later died in hospital in the South African capital following complications from the disease.
She was one of three Hondius passengers to have already died in the outbreak, which has been identified as the Andes strain of hantavirus – the only one known to allow human-to-human transmission.
Another five people have reportedly fallen ill, with three – British, Dutch and German nationals – airlifted from Cape Verde, where the ship remained stationary for three days, to the Netherlands for treatment.
The World Health Organisation has confirmed five of the eight cases as hantavirus, though officials are urging calm and insisting the risk of a wider global outbreak remains ‘low.’
The MV Hondius set sail for Tenerife on Wednesday and is expected to arrive early on Sunday.
It is carrying 146 passengers from 23 countries, none of whom have so far shown symptoms.
Spain is set to coordinate evacuations on Monday, health minister Monica Garcia said, with governments sending aircraft to repatriate their citizens.
Following a dispute with Canary Islands authorities over safety concerns, Garcia said the Hondius would remain anchored offshore near Tenerife’s Granadilla port.
Passengers will be evacuated by speedboat and taken directly to the airport after undergoing medical checks.
Garcia stressed the evacuation would take place gradually, with passengers allowed to disembark in stages as their respective flights arrive in Tenerife.
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