Spain agrees to allow hantavirus cruise ship hit Canary Islands | Health Issues

Spain has given permission to the luxury cruise ship that was hit by a hantavirus infection and stopped along the coast of Cape Verde to the Canary Islands.

The Ministry of Health of Spain said on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) explained that Cape Verde in West Africa could not receive the 147 crew members and passengers of the MV Hondius.

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“The Canary Islands are the closest place with significant potential,” it said. “Spain has a responsibility to help these people, who are also several Spanish citizens.”

The ministry said it will receive a medical plane carrying the ship’s doctor, a Dutch national, who is said to be seriously ill, following a request from the Dutch government.

A Dutch family and a German nation died of a rare diseasewhich is usually spread from infected rats through urine, droppings and saliva, in the train at the beginning of April. The British national, who was released from the ship, is in a South African hospital, officials said.

Two employees they need urgent medical attentionaccording to Dutch-flagged cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions. Another person on board who is suspected to be ill only said he had a mild fever.

Medical transfer

Spain’s Ministry of Health has said that the MV Hondius will go to the Canary Islands after the people who need to evacuate have been removed from the ship.

The Dutch government said earlier on Tuesday that it was preparing to receive the evacuated passengers. Oceanwide Expeditions said the trip to the Canary Islands will take three days on the cruise and that the MV Hondius will stop in Gran Canaria or Tenerife.

All other crew and passengers arriving in the Canary Islands will be tested, treated and returned to their countries, the Spanish Ministry of Health said, in cooperation with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO.

All precautionary measures must be taken, the ministry said, with medical care and transport provided in special places and vehicles to avoid contact with the local population and protect health workers.

According to the WHO, the ship, which left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for Cape Verde, had 88 people and 59 crew members from 23 countries.

The head of the WHO said on Tuesday that it is suspected that some of the rare human-to-human infections occurred between people who were close to each other on the ship.

“We believe that there may be person-to-person transmission occurring between people who are in close proximity, men and women, people who share rooms,” Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemiology and preparedness and prevention at the WHO, told reporters in Geneva.

Van Kerkhove also sent a direct message to the passengers.

“We just want you to know that we are working with the shippers,” he said. “We are working with the countries you are from, we hear you, we know you are scared.”

Andes complex

Human-to-human transmission is not common, and the WHO reiterated that the risk to the public was low, adding that it had been told there were “no rats” on board.

Slow spread between neighbors has been observed in previous outbreaks of the Andean strain of the virus, which is widespread in South America, including Argentina.

Van Kerkhove said the incubation period for hantavirus was between one and six weeks, which led the WHO to believe that the Dutch family, who had traveled to Argentina before boarding the ship, “had the virus on board”.

Some cases can also become infected while watching birds on islands where birds and rodents live, the WHO said.

Such trips are part of the cruise.

The Hondius is carrying a large number of British, American and Spanish nationals on the luxury cruise, which began in southern Argentina at the end of March.

The expedition visited the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, some of the most remote islands in the world.

The trip was marketed as an Antarctic nature tour, with prices ranging from 14,000 to 22,000 euros ($16,000 to $25,000).

The first person abducted, a Dutch man, died on April 11. His body remained until April 24, when “it was brought down to St Helena, accompanied by his wife and returned home”, said Oceanwide Expeditions.

His wife was suffering from stomach symptoms when she was disembarked, and she crashed during the flight to Johannesburg. He died on arrival at the emergency department on April 26, the WHO said, adding that a search for the passengers was underway.

South African authorities have confirmed that a British patient, who is being treated at a Johannesburg hospital, has tested positive for hantavirus.