Hantavirus-hit cruise ship headed to Canary Islands after three patients evacuated

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - AMSTERDAM — Three people with possible symptoms of the hantavirus were evacuated Wednesday morning from the MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship with a deadly outbreak of the disease, before the ship headed to the Canary Islands in Spain.

Two patients in serious condition have landed in the Netherlands, where they are receiving medical treatment, according to a statement on Wednesday from Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch company operating the cruise. Two of the evacuated patients had “acute” symptoms, according to the Dutch foreign ministry.

A third passenger in a stable condition was on board a separate evacuation flight that has been delayed, the operator added.

The three evacuees were British, Dutch and German. Oceanwide Expeditions said the 65-year-old German evacuee was "closely associated" with a German woman who died on board the ship onMay 2.

The British evacuee has been identified by several media outlets as 56-year-old ex-police officer Martin Anstee, who is understood to be in a "stable condition" in the Netherlands.

A 41-year-old Dutch crew member is also among those who have been evacuated.

Separately, Dutch media reported on Thursday that a KLM flight attendant had been admitted to hospital in Amsterdam with hantavirus symptoms.

The stewardess reportedly came into contact with a 69-year-old Dutch woman after she was briefly on board a KLM plane in South Africa but was deemed too ill to fly.

The 69-year-old later died, and her death is being investigated as a suspected hantavirus case by South African health authorities.

The MV Hondius is now sailing towards Spain's Canary Islands after being anchored for three days near Cape Verde, an archipelago nation off the West African coast.

Spanish authorities agreed to the move, but the Canary Islands' president has opposed the plan.

"I cannot allow [the boat] to enter the Canaries," Fernando Clavijo told Spain's Onda Cero radio. "This decision is not based on any technical criteria and nor have we been given enough information."

Spain's Health Minister Mónica García said that everyone on board will undergo a medical assessment when they arrive in Tenerife and, if fit to travel, those from abroad will be repatriated to their home countries.

Spaniards will be sent to a defense hospital in Madrid to quarantine.

The evacuation would "avoid contact" with Canary Island citizens and there would be "no risk" to them when it arrives in Tenerife in the coming days, Garcia said.

Since April 11, three passengers who were aboard the Hondius have died and five other people have been sickened after showing symptoms of the hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents, according to the World Health Organization.

WHO also confirmed a man who had traveled back to Switzerland after disembarking the ship tested positive for hantavirus and is receiving care at a hospital in Zurich.

Meanwhile, two US states have said they are monitoring three passengers who had returned to the US after disembarking earlier. They are currently not displaying symptoms.

Georgia's public health department said two residents were being monitored and were in good health, showing no signs of infection.

Arizona's health department said one resident was being monitored, but was not symptomatic.

The UK's Health Security Agency said two British people were self-isolating at home in the UK after potential exposure to the virus on the ship. They left the vessel earlier in its journey and did not have symptoms.

A total of 146 people from 23 different countries remain aboard the MV Hondius under "strict precautionary measures", Oceanwide Expeditions said.

In its latest update, WHO said eight cases of hantavirus — three confirmed and five suspected — have so far been identified in people who were on the ship.

Most hantavirus strains cannot spread person to person, but the Andes strain, which has been identified in this outbreak, can move between people, according to Bryce Warner, a research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan who has extensively researched hantavirus. But the virus does not spread easily, requiring repeated close contact, he added.