Four Aussies head home from virus ship as part of huge operation to contain Hantavirus

• Four Australians and a permanent resident on board the MV Hondius will be repatriated to Australia amid world-wide concerns over the spread of Hantavirus.
• The ship has experienced an outbreak of Hantavirus, with a total of eight cases and three deaths.
• The ship is now in Spain, where health authorities have carefully planned the arrival of the passengers, all of who will have to be tested before being repatriated.

Australian officials are in Tenerife in Spain, where they will help to repatriate four Australians’s and a permanent resident who lives in Australia from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship which has made headlines around the world due to a deadly outbreak of Hantavirus.

The cruise ship has docked in Tenerife amid the tightest biosecurity operation since the Covid pandemic. Local people have already held protests over the arrival, claiming the Canary islands are not equipped to deal with a virus like this.

As a result, the ship is anchored offshore. Passengers will be moved from the vessel to the port of Granadilla by smaller boats.

They will then be tested before being transferred immediately to chartered planes for repatriation to their home countries, including Australia, America, UK and Germany.

Reports from Tenerife said none of the Australians are showing symptoms of the virus.

American passengers are expected to be flown to Nebraska, home to the National Quarantine Unit, as reported by CNN. It is not clear where the Australians will go.

Thirty crew members will stay onboard and travel to the Netherlands, but health authorities will fully disinfect the ship when it arrives in Spain.

Source of the disease

While most strains of Hantavirus do not spread from human-to-human, health authorities have confirmed that passengers have one of the rare strains that do spread between people and therefore are taking extreme precautions to avoid the spread of the disease and performing large scale contact tracing operations.

The initial source of the virus isn’t yet confirmed, but authorities believe a Dutch couple could have contracted it while on a bird watching trip in Argentina.

The World Health Organisation is present in Tenerife to help with the safety process and protocols. They are advising countries to actively monitor the departing cruise passengers for at least 42-days since their last potential exposure to the virus.

Since the outbreak began, there have been eight confirmed cases of Hantavirus and three deaths, the Department of Foreign Affairs has not commented on whether any of the Australian’s have displayed any symptoms of the virus.

A spokesperson said: “We are considering options for the safe repatriation of the four Australians and [a] permanent resident. Our priority is the safety of the community.”

Another Australian was on the cruise, and has disembarked at an earlier date and is already back in Australia. A total of 33 passengers had already disembarked, one of who later tested positive for the virus and is currently hospitalised in Switzerland.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director General of the World Health Organisation made a rare statement due to local concern and Terife, as well as around the world.

This is NOT another Covid

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word “outbreak” and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment.

“But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.

“The virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of hantavirus. It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families. The risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO’s assessment, and we do not make it lightly.”

The director also confirmed that are currently no symptomatic passengers onboard and explained the disembarking process: “Right now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board. A WHO expert is on that ship. Medical supplies are in place.

“Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries. You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them.”

How safe is cruising? See our special report here.