Spain says it applied all prevention and control measures after French and US evacuees from a cruise ship tested positive for hantavirus.
MADRID: Spain on Monday said it took “all measures” to prevent hantavirus spreading from evacuees on a cruise ship hit by the virus, after French and US nationals tested positive.
A complex repatriation operation from the Canary Islands on Sunday flew out 94 passengers and crew of 19 different nationalities from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, which is at the centre of an international alert after three passengers died.
Medical teams escorted travellers to an airport on Tenerife under close supervision and following thorough sanitary checks.
French and US authorities have reported positive tests for hantavirus from one each of their evacuees.
“From the start, all the measures adopted have aimed at cutting the possible chains of transmission… all measures for prevention and control of transmission have been applied,” the Spanish health ministry said in a statement.
It said the French patient “started to feel unwell during the flight and not while she was on the ship”.
The US citizen’s tests in Cape Verde, where the MV Hondius stopped before reaching the Canary Islands, gave a result considered by the Americans as a “weak positive”, “although for us it was not conclusive”, and another that was negative, the ministry said.
“The person in question did not show symptoms when they were in Cape Verde. However, the US authorities have decided to treat the case as positive. For that reason, they requested a separate evacuation, which was carried out in a separate boat.”
The final 22 people to be evacuated will all leave on a plane to the Netherlands, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said, changing an original schedule that had involved a second plane to Australia.
After refuelling, the ship is scheduled to depart for the Netherlands at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) with a skeleton crew.
“There are still some citizens from the Netherlands and Australia, and hopefully we can even finish before the scheduled time,” Spanish government minister Angel Victor Torres told public radio RNE.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is a known but rare illness that usually spreads among rodents.
Health officials have insisted that the risk to global public health is low and dismissed comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
