Canary Islands leader opposes docking of hantavirus-hit cruise ship at Tenerife

Wednesday 06 - 11:00

By: Dakir Madiha

Canary Islands leader opposes docking of hantavirus-hit cruise ship at Tenerife

A hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius has been identified as the Andes strain, the only known hantavirus capable of spreading from person to person, as the Dutch-flagged vessel sailed from Cape Verde toward Spain's Canary Islands on Wednesday amid a growing international health response.

Three passengers have died and at least four others have fallen ill since the ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a polar expedition across the South Atlantic. The World Health Organization recorded seven cases as of May 4, two confirmed by laboratory testing at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases and five suspected, with symptoms appearing between April 6 and April 28. The confirmed cases include a 69-year-old Dutch woman who disembarked at Saint Helena on April 24 with gastrointestinal symptoms, flew to Johannesburg the following day, and died upon arrival at hospital on April 26. Her husband, a 70-year-old Dutch national, had died aboard the vessel on April 11. A German passenger died on board on May 2. A British passenger who was evacuated to Johannesburg remains in critical condition in intensive care.

The WHO said it is attempting to trace more than 80 people who were aboard an Airlink flight on April 25 connecting Saint Helena to Johannesburg, on which the Dutch woman had traveled. That flight carried 82 passengers and six crew members. WHO officials said investigators are working on the hypothesis that the Andes strain is responsible for the cases. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said the virus may have spread between very close contacts aboard the ship, such as couples sharing a cabin. She confirmed there were no rats on board and that disinfection operations were underway. The Andes virus, endemic to Argentina and Chile, is the only hantavirus for which person-to-person transmission has been documented, though such transmission remains rare. The WHO emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low.

Spain's central government approved the vessel's passage to the Canary Islands on Tuesday evening, after the WHO established that Cape Verde lacked the capacity to manage the 147 people on board. The ship is expected to reach Tenerife within three to four days. The president of the Canary Islands regional government, Fernando Clavijo, rejected the decision on Wednesday, calling it an improvisation by the Spanish government and stating that authorities lacked sufficient information about the scale of the outbreak. "We have no medical report indicating how many patients are infected," he said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds the authority to override the regional government's objections. As the ship continued north, Spain's Ministry of Health announced it had also agreed, at the request of the Dutch government, to receive the ship's doctor, whose condition is serious, at the Canary Islands by medical aircraft. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is assessing which individuals require urgent evacuation.