标签： Jamaica

MADRID, Spain — Spanish authorities announced Wednesday that the MV Hondius, a cruise ship affected by a fatal hantavirus outbreak that has claimed three lives, is on track to dock at the Canary Islands’ Tenerife within three days, with mass passenger evacuation operations set to begin on May 11. The outbreak has triggered international concern over potential spread, though top global health officials have moved quickly to reassure the public that the situation does not mirror the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier on Wednesday, emergency response teams completed the evacuation of three individuals from the vessel: two symptomatic crew members and one close contact of a confirmed infection case. The ship had previously been anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, and after the evacuation operation was completed, it set sail for the Spanish archipelago. Medical personnel clad in full hazmat suits transferred the three evacuees from the cruise ship to a specialized ambulance boat, before the group was transported to Praia International Airport, Cape Verde’s main air hub in its capital, for onward travel.

According to on-site AFP correspondents, a medical aircraft carrying two of the evacuated passengers touched down at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands at 17:47 GMT. German emergency services confirmed they subsequently took custody of the third evacuee — the individual who had been exposed to an infected passenger on board — and transported the person to a specialized hospital in Dusseldorf for monitoring and treatment.

Virology experts have confirmed that the strain of hantavirus detected on the MV Hondius is the Andes virus, an uncommon subtype that is the only known hantavirus capable of spreading from person to person. World Health Organization (WHO) expert Anais Legand explained to AFP that based on the virus’s 1- to 6-week incubation period, the initial index case on the cruise could not have contracted the virus during the voyage itself. The ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1, and the first fatality linked to the outbreak was recorded just 10 days later on April 11.

Argentine health officials confirmed that the first couple killed by the virus had completed travel through Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before boarding the cruise in Ushuaia. In response to the outbreak, experts will travel to the southern Argentine port city to conduct testing on local rodent populations — the natural reservoir for hantavirus — to trace the origin of the infection.

Global and national health authorities have actively sought to calm widespread public anxiety over a potential large-scale global outbreak, noting that hantavirus is significantly less transmissible than the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told AFP that the current situation is not comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing: “The risk to the rest of the world is low.”

GENEVA, Switzerland – The World Health Organization issued an update Thursday on a rare hantavirus outbreak linked to the expedition cruise vessel MV Hondius, which has already claimed three lives. Officials have cautioned that additional cases may surface in the coming weeks, but expressed confidence that targeted public health precautions will keep the outbreak contained.\n\nThe incident has sparked global concern after three passengers tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus — a rare, human-to-human transmissible variant — and subsequently died. Early Thursday morning, a fourth ailing passenger from the ship disembarked in Europe, and the vessel is now en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, where all remaining crew and passengers will be evacuated upon its scheduled arrival Sunday in Tenerife. As of Thursday, the ship’s operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, confirmed no currently symptomatic people remain on board.\n\nDuring a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that the outbreak has so far produced five confirmed cases and three suspected cases, counting the three fatalities. “Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he explained. Shortly after the briefing, the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands confirmed that the recently disembarked sick passenger had returned a positive hantavirus test.\n\nDespite the possibility of new cases, WHO Emergency Alert and Response Director Abdi Rahman Mahamud struck a measured tone, noting: “We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.” Currently, people linked to the outbreak are receiving treatment or in isolation across five countries: Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa.\n\nUnlike COVID-19, hantavirus is primarily spread by infected rodents, though the Andes variant can spread between humans. The rare respiratory illness can trigger severe complications including respiratory failure, cardiac impairment, and hemorrhagic fever, and no vaccine or targeted cure exists for the disease. Epidemiologists trace the origin of the outbreak to an initial passenger who contracted the virus before boarding the MV Hondius in the Argentine coastal city of Ushuaia, where the ship departed on its voyage on April 1. The virus then spread to other passengers during the Atlantic crossing.\n\nThe timeline of the outbreak unfolded steadily over the past month. A Dutch man who boarded the ship in Ushuaia with his wife became the first fatality, dying aboard the vessel on April 11. His body was removed on April 24 at Saint Helena, a South Atlantic island where 29 other passengers also disembarked. His wife, who disembarked to accompany his body to South Africa, developed symptoms and died 15 days later; hantavirus was confirmed as her cause of death on May 4. A third fatality, a German passenger, died on May 2, and her body remains on the ship as it continues to Tenerife.\n\nInternational contact tracing efforts are now underway across more than a dozen countries. The WHO has notified 12 nations whose citizens disembarked at Saint Helena. The Dutch woman who died flew from Saint Helena to Johannesburg on a commercial Airlink flight while symptomatic, and health officials are currently working to identify and monitor all 82 passengers and six crew who were on that flight. Argentina’s health authorities are also planning to test wild rodent populations in Ushuaia to confirm the initial source of exposure, while Chilean health officials have ruled out local transmission for the two deceased Dutch passengers, noting their travel window did not align with the virus’s incubation period.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency confirmed two passengers who returned to the United Kingdom from the cruise have been advised to self-isolate, adding that both remain asymptomatic and the overall risk to the general UK public remains “very low.” Oceanwide Expeditions added that there were 149 people total on board the vessel, including 88 passengers, and the company is working to trace every passenger and crew member who has boarded or disembarked the ship since March 20.

GENEVA, Switzerland – In an official briefing held Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) has updated the public on an emerging hantavirus outbreak linked to the Atlantic cruise vessel MV Hondius, confirming five positive cases of the disease, with three additional suspected infections still under investigation. Three deaths have already been connected to the incident, and global health officials have cautioned that further cases may emerge as the outbreak continues to unfold.

The Dutch-flagged exploration ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a northbound Atlantic voyage that was scheduled to end in Cape Verde. After wrapping up its stop in Cape Verde, the vessel set a new course for Tenerife, Spain this Wednesday, carrying its remaining passengers and crew after multiple passengers disembarked earlier in the journey.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed to journalists in Geneva that the specific strain involved in the outbreak is the Andes hantavirus, a variant endemic to parts of South America. This particular strain is unique among hantaviruses because it is the only variant with confirmed evidence of person-to-person transmission. Most hantaviruses spread to humans exclusively from infected rodents, typically through contact with contaminated urine, fecal matter, or saliva.

“Andes virus has an incubation period that can extend up to six full weeks, which means we cannot rule out additional cases being detected in the coming weeks,” Tedros explained. He added that he has maintained consistent communication with the captain of the MV Hondius, who reported that passenger and crew morale has improved dramatically since the vessel resumed its journey. “I want to recognize the captain and the entire ship crew for their ongoing efforts to protect everyone on board,” he said.

Tedros confirmed that during a stop at the British overseas territory of Saint Helena between April 22 and 24, 30 passengers disembarked the vessel. The first recorded fatality from the outbreak, a Dutch national, died on April 11 before the stop. To date, 12 countries have been notified by WHO that their citizens were among those who left the ship at Saint Helena: the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States.

In a promising update, global health leaders expressed cautious confidence that the outbreak can be contained. Abdi Rahman Mahamud, Director of WHO’s Emergency Alert and Response, stated that the outbreak will remain limited if appropriate public health protocols are implemented consistently across all affected countries and regions. To support ongoing testing efforts, Argentina is preparing to ship 2,500 diagnostic testing kits to laboratories across five countries that are handling contact tracing and case confirmation for the incident.