Hantavirus-hit cruise ship reaches Spain as global evacuation begins

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MADRID — A cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak arrived off Spain’s Tenerife Island early Sunday, as passengers and crew prepared to disembark and return to their home countries under strict health monitoring measures.

According to EFE News Agency, the MV Hondius reached waters near Granadilla Port at around 5:30 a.m. local time, with Spanish authorities launching a large-scale medical and evacuation operation.

Health officials said six passengers had confirmed hantavirus infections, while two additional cases remained under investigation. Three deaths have been reported, including two that occurred on board the vessel.

The ship is carrying around 150 passengers and crew members from 23 countries, including 38 crew members from the Philippines, 23 passengers from the UK, 17 from the United States, 14 from Spain, 11 from the Netherlands, eight from Germany, and five each from France and Ukraine.

Other passengers include four each from Canada and Australia, three from Türkiye, two each from India, Belgium, and Ireland, and one each from Greece, Poland, Portugal, Montenegro, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Argentina, and Guatemala.

Authorities said all passengers currently remain asymptomatic and will be transferred ashore in small groups by boats for medical screening before boarding repatriation flights.

“They will be first assessed … checked to see if they have symptoms or not,” officials said, adding that passengers would also complete epidemiological questionnaires.

Spanish authorities said the vessel would remain anchored offshore and would not dock directly at the port. Passengers will instead be transported in groups of five before being taken by bus to Tenerife airport, located about six miles away.

Spanish nationals are expected to be among the first evacuated, with some transferred to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine periods ranging from one to two weeks depending on medical evaluations.

The 17 American passengers are expected to be flown back to the United States and monitored at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska.

American oncologist Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, who was on board the ship, assisted passengers after the vessel’s doctor became infected. Speaking to ABC News, Kornfeld described the outbreak as a rapidly escalating medical crisis.

He said one patient died within 24 hours after he became involved in the emergency response, while other infected individuals, including the ship’s doctor and another staff member, experienced worsening symptoms during the voyage.

Kornfeld added that several infected passengers had already been hospitalized in different countries, including the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland, after leaving the ship earlier in the journey.

Despite the outbreak, US health authorities said no American passengers had tested positive for the virus as of Saturday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the outbreak as a Level 3 emergency response, the agency’s lowest emergency activation level.

According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak involving the Andes strain of hantavirus has resulted in at least five confirmed cases and three deaths.

Scientists confirmed the outbreak was caused by the rare Andes variant of hantavirus, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, typically through close contact.

The WHO said two passengers who later died had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the cruise ship.

CDC officials said passengers would be monitored for around six weeks, reflecting the virus’s incubation period, while health authorities in several US states continue tracking travelers who had already disembarked before the outbreak was confirmed.