Hantavirus Outbreak triggers WHO emergency response as infected cruise passengers prepare for evacuation in Tenerife
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is expected in Tenerife on Saturday to coordinate emergency measures linked to the deadly Hantavirus Outbreak aboard the cruise vessel MV Hondius.
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Spanish ministry sources said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would join Spain’s health and interior ministers at a command centre overseeing the evacuation of passengers and enforcement of health surveillance protocols.
The emergency response follows the deaths of three passengers, identified as a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman, after infections linked to the rare rodent-borne disease.
Health authorities confirmed that the Andes virus strain, the only known hantavirus capable of human-to-human transmission, had been detected among confirmed cases, heightening international concern.
The Dutch-flagged vessel, carrying about 150 passengers and crew, is expected to arrive off Tenerife on Sunday. Passengers are due to be repatriated through specially arranged flights to their home countries.
The World Health Organization sought to calm fears on Friday, insisting the Hantavirus Outbreak posed only a minimal threat to the wider public.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the virus was dangerous mainly to infected individuals and did not spread easily between people.
“There is evidence that even some cabin-sharing passengers have not both contracted the virus,” Lindmeier told reporters.
The WHO confirmed six positive cases from eight suspected infections and stated there were no remaining suspected cases aboard the ship.
A flight attendant with KLM who came into contact with an infected passenger later tested negative for the virus despite developing mild symptoms.
The infected passenger, identified as the wife of the first fatality, had briefly boarded a Johannesburg-to-Netherlands flight on April 25 before being removed prior to take-off. She died the next day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish Health Secretary Javier Padilla said a woman in eastern Spain who sat two rows behind the deceased passenger on the flight had developed symptoms and was undergoing testing in hospital isolation.
Authorities also disclosed that a South African woman who travelled on the same flight remained asymptomatic after returning home following a stay in Barcelona.
Two residents of Singapore who had travelled aboard the MV Hondius tested negative but remain under quarantine measures.
The vessel departed Ushuaia on April 1 for a transatlantic voyage to Cape Verde.
Three suspected cases, including two crew members who later tested positive, were evacuated from Cape Verde to the Netherlands earlier in the outbreak.
German health officials confirmed that a third suspected case later tested negative but would continue under medical observation.
Provincial health official Juan Petrina said there was an “almost zero chance” that the Dutch passenger contracted the virus in Ushuaia based on incubation timelines.
Travel YouTuber Kasem Ibn Hattuta described growing relief among passengers after doctors boarded the ship and the vessel departed Cape Verde.
“People are smiling and taking the situation calmly,” he said, noting that passengers were wearing masks indoors and observing distancing measures.
The United States government also announced plans to evacuate American passengers from the ship and transfer them to a quarantine facility in Nebraska.
Spanish authorities said the ship would remain offshore near Tenerife and would not be permitted to dock directly. Passengers are expected to transfer to smaller vessels before being transported by bus to the airport.
Officials warned the evacuation must be completed between Sunday and Monday before worsening weather conditions arrive around the Canary Islands.
The crisis also triggered protests by dock workers in Tenerife on Friday over fears linked to the ship’s arrival.
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British health authorities separately confirmed a suspected infection on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands with a population of about 220 residents.
