hantavirus cruise – WHO’s Tedros arrived in Tenerife as officials prepare flights to evacuate more than 100 people from a hantavirus-affected cruise.
A World Health Organization chief traveled to Spain’s Canary Islands to personally oversee the evacuation of passengers from a cruise ship tied to a hantavirus outbreak, emphasizing that the risk to local residents remains low and urging people not to conflate the situation with COVID-19.
Dr.. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife on Saturday to monitor the process as the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius is expected to anchor off the coast of the Canaries’ largest island.. Speaking to people in the region. Tedros said public concern is understandable after the world’s experience in 2020. when coronavirus fears upended daily life and stretched health systems.
“This disease is not COVID,” Tedros said, reiterating a letter he had sent earlier Saturday.. He acknowledged the psychological weight of outbreaks—saying that while hantavirus is biologically different from coronavirus. “that trauma is still in our minds.” He said he had changed his travel plans to come in person. framing the visit as a way to stand with the people of Tenerife rather than communicate remotely.
Officials said the MV Hondius is expected to arrive early Sunday.. The WHO reported that eight people aboard the ship had confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases. and that three people have died.. Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns the vessel, said none of the 147 people on board—including 60 crew members—are currently symptomatic.
Even as the ship’s arrival is imminent. planning is already underway for how passengers will be moved off the vessel.. Tedros estimated that six evacuation flights would head to European Union countries and four to non-EU countries. reflecting that travelers on the ship include people from multiple jurisdictions.
For Americans aboard, the evacuation plan is more narrowly defined.. Oceanwide Expeditions said there are 17 Americans on the MV Hondius.. They are expected to be taken off the ship in small boats to shore and then transferred immediately to an aircraft waiting on the runway.. The plane will be provided by the U.S.. government with oversight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. and will take the passengers to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska. Omaha. according to the CDC.
Maria van Kerkhove. the WHO’s acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention. said at a Saturday press conference that while passengers are likely anxious to return home. the priority is doing so in the safest way possible.. She linked that approach to the broader objective of preventing further spread while people are moved between countries.
The Spanish Health Ministry said that each country with passengers on board would conduct a similar evacuation, using arrangements that connect passengers directly from the ship to waiting aircraft. The same emphasis on controlled movement underpins WHO guidance after removal from the vessel.
The WHO said it is recommending that each country keep removed passengers in isolation for 42 days from the last point of exposure to the virus. Officials framed the extended isolation as a precaution meant to reduce the chance that any infection would go undetected as travelers return home.
Health experts have pointed to the virus’s transmission pattern as a key reason officials are not expecting a large spread.. Hantavirus is usually acquired through close contact with rodents rather than through person-to-person transmission.. However. experts noted that the testing of those who were sickened on the Hondius confirmed they had the Andes strain of hantavirus. which is described as the only variation that can be transmitted through close contact with a sick individual.. Even with that detail, specialists say the likelihood of widespread transmission is very small.
Tedros reiterated those distinctions in his letter to the people of the Canary Islands. saying the public health risk from hantavirus remains low and that the WHO’s position has been communicated “unequivocally.” He said the message is meant to address fear as well as biology. contrasting the current concern with what he described as the lingering effects of the COVID-19 period.
The voyage that led to the outbreak began in early April.. The ship left Argentina on April 1 for a cruise that included stops at remote islands in the South Atlantic. including Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena. both British territories.. According to Oceanwide Expeditions. the outbreak appeared to start with a Dutch couple who traveled around South America in the months before the cruise. the only place where the Andes strain is known to exist.
The couple reportedly spent time bird-watching in areas where rodents have tested positive for hantavirus.. The husband died on the ship on April 11. while his wife—one of 32 people who disembarked the ship in Saint Helena—was expected to fly to South Africa.. She died days later after being removed from a KLM Airlines plane because she was too sick to fly. Oceanwide Expeditions reported.
Officials say the timing and movement of passengers after earlier stops have prompted observation efforts beyond the Canary Islands.. Dozens of people who were on a plane or disembarked at Saint Helena are already under observation around the world. including in the United States.. State health departments confirmed to CBS News that none of the people in the U.S.. being monitored—across Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, New Jersey and California—are experiencing symptoms of the virus.
Public fear about ship-based outbreaks often spikes quickly, and Tedros addressed that dynamic directly, pointing to the lasting memory of 2020.. In this case. health authorities are trying to keep focus on what has actually been documented: confirmed deaths on the ship. non-symptomatic status among those still aboard. and isolation guidance designed to manage any uncertainty as travelers transition.
As the MV Hondius nears Tenerife. the evacuation effort now sits at the intersection of public reassurance and strict logistics—balancing the need to move people efficiently with the requirement to reduce risk at each stage.. The 42-day isolation recommendation and the multi-country flight plan underscore that authorities are treating containment and monitoring as inseparable from getting passengers safely home.
For travelers and families watching from the U.S.. and Europe. the operational details may be as important as the medical ones: the coordinated transfer from ship to shore. the aircraft waiting for passengers on the runway. and a quarantine destination for Americans.. In a situation where the virus is not generally spread person-to-person. officials appear to be relying on that knowledge while still preparing for worst-case possibilities through extended isolation and observation.
WHO Tedros Tenerife hantavirus cruise evacuation MV Hondius Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tenerife health officials 42-day isolation Andes strain hantavirus