The expedition cruise ship, MV Hondius, has recently docked at Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, Spain. This follows a week of quarantine at sea due to a dangerous strain of hantavirus that resulted in three fatalities and several infections on board.
Spanish authorities, alongside the World Health Organization and various health agencies, orchestrated a careful disembarkation process. This includes medical screenings and the use of small boats to transport passengers ashore in groups organized by nationality. Most luggage is being retained on the vessel for necessary disinfection.
Reports indicate that no passengers currently show symptoms of the virus, as stated by CNN.
Spanish nationals were prioritized for disembarkation and taken to a military hospital in Madrid for health monitoring. Subsequently, groups from countries such as the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Ireland followed, with arrangements made for their flights home.
Seventeen American passengers will return via a U.S. government-sponsored medical flight to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where they will be monitored.
Approximately 30 crew members will remain with the ship to navigate it to Rotterdam for a deep cleaning after all passengers are safely disembarked. This entire operation has been conducted without any breaches against the local population.
The MV Hondius had embarked from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 with about 147 individuals onboard, including crew and passengers aged primarily around 65 years. The outbreak involved the Andes strain of hantavirus, found primarily in South America, with rare instances of limited person-to-person transmission.
The initial case likely contracted the virus through rodent exposure before boarding the vessel. The first symptoms manifested around April 6, leading to a death aboard on April 11, with one close contact subsequently falling ill and also dying after evacuation.
As of May 8, there have been eight reported cases, with six confirmed through laboratory testing and two classified as probable. The outbreak has a significant case fatality ratio of approximately 38 percent, showcasing the severity of this health crisis.
Prior to final disembarkation, four individuals had been hospitalized in South Africa, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Additionally, earlier departures from the ship had occurred at various ports, such as Tristan da Cunha and St. Helena in late April.
Some individuals exhibiting symptoms were evacuated during these earlier stops. International contact tracing is actively ongoing for all those who left the ship and their close contacts in several countries.
No new secondary cases have been confirmed among any of these groups to date.
