Photo courtesy of Anadolu.
United States health authorities have intensified containment measures following a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, as affected passengers prepared for monitoring upon their return.
The vessel was expected to arrive Sunday in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been deployed to assist American passengers on board.
Reports said at least 17 Americans remained on the ship and were set to undergo quarantine protocols once repatriated.
The US State Department had been arranging a special flight to bring them back, with plans to transfer the passengers to a quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
The MV Hondius, carrying about 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries, had departed from Argentina and crossed the Atlantic when cases of respiratory illness were reported near Cape Verde off West Africa.
The outbreak has been classified by the CDC as a Level 3 emergency response, which is the agency’s lowest activation level.
Health authorities confirmed five cases linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, including three fatalities, based on data from the World Health Organization.
Experts said the Andes variant is the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, usually through close contact, prompting monitoring of passengers for up to six weeks while officials also tracked individuals who had disembarked earlier.