A Greek man evacuated from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will be quarantined for 45 days in Athens.
ATHENS: A Greek man on board a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has sparked international alarm will be quarantined for 45 days, the Greek health ministry said Sunday.
The ministry in a statement said the man would be put on a special Greek airforce flight upon being evacuated from the MV Hondius on Sunday.
He will be flying from Spain’s Canary Islands initially to Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands, it said.
He will be taken to a specially configured negative pressure room at a hospital in Athens where he will be placed in mandatory quarantine for 45 days, the ministry said.
The man, reportedly 70 years of age, is is “in good health and asymptomatic”, the ministry said.
Three passengers from the MV Hondius — a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman — have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.
