6 hantavirus cases confirmed as cruise passengers await disembarking

Misryoum reports six hantavirus cases have been confirmed on a cruise ship bound for Tenerife, with multiple countries arranging evacuations as passengers wait to disembark.

Planes will evacuate citizens from multiple countries aboard the Tenerife, Spain-bound cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, where six cases have been confirmed as the Andes strain of hantavirus.. The MV Hondius is set to anchor near Tenerife at 0300-0500 GMT on Sunday, or 10 p.m.. to midnight ET.. Spain’s interior minister said on Saturday that planes will come from Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands as well as two from the

European Union for any remaining European citizens.. The U.S.. is arranging a repatriation flight for the Americans on board the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, the State Department announced.. The U.S.. and U.K.. have confirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were unable to send air transport, he said.. Residents of multiple countries, including the United States, are being monitored after disembarking from the Hondius..

Three people have died in connection with the outbreak.. The CDC said U.S.. health officials are “actively monitoring and responding to a hantavirus outbreak” linked to the cruise ship.. “At this time, the risk to the American public remains extremely low,” the agency said.. The World Health Organization’s Dr.. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he will personally help oversee the ship’s disembarkation.. In a post to social media on May 9, the director-general shared he arrived

in Spain.. “I will join senior government officials in a mission to Tenerife to oversee safe disembarkation of the passengers, crew members and health experts from MV Hondius cruise ship,” he wrote.. “Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski and @WHO colleague on board Dr Freddy Banza-Mutoka, who told me that, at this stage, there are no additional people on board showing symptoms of #hantavirus.” Contributing: Reuters; Eve Chen, Natalie Neysa Alund,

Jeanine Santucci and Melina Khan, USA TODAY