Cruise Ship With Andes Hantavirus Heads to Tenerife for Staged Evacuations

Overview

• MV Hondius is routing to Tenerife, where passengers will disembark by launch and depart on organized repatriation flights once aircraft are positioned.
• WHO, which updated figures Thursday, counts eight cases linked to the voyage with five laboratory confirmations of the Andes strain, a hantavirus that can spread between people through close, prolonged contact.
• Spanish authorities say everyone remains aboard until flights are ready, after earlier medical evacuations to South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, and the operator reported no symptomatic passengers on Thursday.
• Health services are tracing roughly 30 people who left the ship at Saint Helena and notifying affected countries, while Argentina is sending teams to Ushuaia to capture and test rodents to probe a likely South American exposure.
• Officials caution that more cases are possible because incubation can last up to six weeks, yet they rate the public risk as low given the limited documented person‑to‑person spread of the Andes virus.