Hantavirus evacuation: 1 tests positive, another develops symptoms
TENERIFE, Canary Islands — Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, with one American testing positive and a French traveler developing symptoms for the pathogen aboard their separate aircraft.
One the 17 American passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.
Earlier, one of the five French passengers developed symptoms on their flight home, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested.
READ: Americans from hantavirus-hit ship will not necessarily be quarantinedPassengers were evacuated off the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast.
Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who were then on the Hondius had shown symptoms of the virus.
The aircraft carrying the Americans was due to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday.
The Americans would first be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.
READ: 24 of 38 Filipino crew aboard hantavirus-hit ship fly to the NetherlandsThe medical school also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.
“One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine hospital that will help care for the passengers.
From the ship, all of the passengers were escorted to shore by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks. Spanish passengers were the first to leave, flown to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. Hours later, a plane that evacuated French passengers landed in Paris, where it was met by emergency vehicles.
The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was expected to last until Monday.
READ: Plane with UK citizens from hantavirus ship lands in Manchester
Japan’s Foreign Ministry said a Japanese national arrived in Britain on a chartered flight arranged by the British government and will be under health monitoring by British authorities for up to 45 days.
Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier are infected with hantavirus. /dl
