Hantavirus Cruise Outbreak: MV Hondius Heads to Tenerife for Controlled Disembarkation

Overview

• WHO on Thursday said five of eight identified infections are confirmed and warned the incubation period of up to six weeks means more cases could surface.
• The ship is sailing to Tenerife with about 146 people after Wednesday medical evacuations off Cabo Verde moved the sickest passengers for specialist care in Europe.
• Spain approved a plan that keeps the vessel at anchor and transfers people by launch to Tenerife South airport, while Canary Islands officials oppose allowing the ship to dock.
• Patients linked to the voyage are in hospitals in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, and contact tracing now spans those who left at Saint Helena on 24 April and a Johannesburg flight that includes a suspected case in Spain’s Alicante.
• Tests identified the Andes strain, the only hantavirus known to spread between people in very close contact, and there is no vaccine or specific antiviral so care focuses on supportive treatment.