The Dutch-flagged expedition ship MV Hondius arrived off Tenerife early Sunday as authorities began repatriation of passengers after a deadly hantavirus outbreak onboard.
The Hondius was visible near Granadilla Port just after 5:30 a.m. local time, where health teams had set up a medical tent overnight. The World Health Organization has reported six confirmed hantavirus cases and two suspected cases associated with the voyage. Three people have died, two of them while still on the ship.
Spanish and international health officials said disembarkation will be done by small boats. Passengers will be screened on shore before being put on flights home, a process described by WHO epidemic preparedness lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove.
Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García told reporters that all remaining passengers were asymptomatic at the time of arrival. Spanish nationals will leave first in small groups, then passengers from the Netherlands will board a plane that will also carry German, Belgian and Greek nationals and some crew. Subsequent flights are planned for travelers from Turkey, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, with a final flight expected to carry a handful of people from Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Seventeen U.S. citizens still aboard will be flown to the United States and monitored at the National Quarantine Unit on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, a facility that handles highly hazardous communicable diseases. Nebraska Medicine officials said they are prepared to receive and monitor those passengers.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the operator of the Hondius, said the ship, some crew members and passengers’ luggage will continue the five-day voyage to Rotterdam. A body of one person who died aboard will remain on the ship. Spanish authorities said the vessel will undergo a disinfection process once it reaches the Netherlands.
Health authorities emphasized that the risk to the public in Tenerife and globally is low. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed local residents, urging calm and stressing that the situation is not comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic and that the public health risk remains limited.
Hantaviruses are typically contracted through contact with rodents or exposure to their urine, droppings or saliva. The WHO noted that the first case linked to this outbreak suggests possible exposure to rodents during bird-watching activities. Of the hantavirus family, the Andes virus — the strain implicated in the Hondius cases — is one of the few known to spread between people, but human-to-human transmission has generally required very close contact.
The cluster of severe respiratory illness on board was reported to the WHO on May 2, roughly a month after the Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina. At the time of the report the ship had carried 147 people, though 34 passengers and crew had disembarked earlier. The first death occurred April 11, when a Dutch passenger died on the ship; his wife later died at a clinic in South Africa on April 26. A third death, a German woman, occurred on board on May 2. Hantavirus was confirmed in a patient who had been medically evacuated to a South African hospital two days later.
Hantavirus infections can be severe and have a high case fatality rate, estimated by WHO at roughly 40 to 50 percent in some outbreaks, and older adults are at greater risk. The average age of people on the Hondius was about 65.
Authorities continue to screen and repatriate passengers while monitoring public health risks locally and coordinating international responses to the outbreak.