MV Hondius, the cruise ship hit by the hantavirus outbreak, will be welcomed to Europe. A major western capital confirms
Spain confirmed on Tuesday evening, through an announcement made by the Iberian Ministry of Health, that it will receive the vessel MV Hondius in the Canary Islands, “in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles”, informs Reuters.
Once the ship reaches the Canary Islands, Spanish medical teams will examine and treat all passengers and crew members and transfer them to their countries of origin, according to a statement from the Health Ministry in Madrid.
“Cape Verde, the World Health Organization explained, is not in a position to carry out this operation,” the ministry said.
“The Canary Islands are the closest location that has the necessary capabilities. Spain has a moral and legal obligation to help these people, among whom there are also several Spanish citizens,” the ministry in Madrid said.
The Canary Islands are an archipelago consisting of eight islands of volcanic origin in the Atlantic Ocean, located relatively close to the northwest coast of Africa, west of Morocco. The islands belong to Spain and form an autonomous community of the Iberian Peninsula.
WHO announcement
Earlier on Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had begun efforts to identify the more than 80 passengers on board the plane with which a Dutch tourist infected with hantavirus was transferred from Saint Helena Island to the South African city of Johannesburg, where the patient died in hospital.
The 69-year-old Dutch woman, whose 70-year-old husband died on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, had been disembarked on St Helena on April 24 “with gastrointestinal symptoms”, then boarded a plane the following day to Johannesburg, South Africa, the WHO said.
She died a day later on April 26, and her hantavirus infection was confirmed on Monday. “Investigations have been launched to find the passengers” of the plane that made that flight, WHO added, in a statement quoted by AFP and Agerpres.
It is a flight operated by the South African company Airlink on April 25, with 82 passengers and six crew members on board, revealed the director of sales and marketing of the company Airlink, Karin Murray.
The WHO suspects “human-to-human transmission between people who have come into very close contact,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director of the department of prevention and preparedness for epidemics within the organization.
There is only one flight a week between Johannesburg and that isolated island in the South Atlantic, and the flight takes about four hours.
South African authorities have asked Airlink to inform passengers on that flight that they will need to contact the Ministry of Health if they haven't already, Karin Murray added.
MV Hondius, the cruise ship suspected of being a hantavirus outbreak, was to quickly leave the Cape Verde archipelago, after the medical evacuation of two crew members, who are sick, as well as a passenger, considered a case of close contact with a patient who died on May 2.
The cruise ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, announced Tuesday evening that the three people would be medically evacuated on two planes to the Netherlands.
After their evacuation, the Dutch company stated that the vessel MV Hondius will be able to leave off the coast of the Republic of Cape Verde and head for Gran Canaria or Tenerife, in the Canary Islands (Spain), “which will involve three days of sailing”.
MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina on its voyage to the Cape Verde archipelago with 88 passengers and 59 crew members of 23 nationalities on board.
The WHO announced on Sunday three deaths on that ship – a Dutch couple and a German tourist – associated with a possible outbreak of hantavirus infection, an infection that can cause acute respiratory symptoms.
