Spain’s Canary Islands brace for incoming hantavirus-stricken cruise ship

The 140 passengers and crew on the MV Hondius will be ‘completely isolated’ and evacuated, say Spanish authorities.

A cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak is en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, where it plans to drop off 140 passengers and crew so they can be evacuated after weeks stranded at sea.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius vessel, on which at least eight people fell ill, is due to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife , off the coast of West Africa, early Sunday morning.

Passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area”, said the head of Spain’s emergency services, Virginia Barcones.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be on the island to help coordinate their evacuation, according to Spanish ministry sources cited by AFP.

While three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected with hantavirus, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Friday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship.

The WHO considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.

“This is not a new COVID,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier.

“The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person.”
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people.

But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases.

Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was first detected on May 2.

They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.

‘Cannot become Europe’s health laboratory’
Some Spanish residents expressed concern that the passengers’ arrival would create a health risk on the island and that not enough measures were in place to contain it.

Iustitia Europa, an anti-establishment Spanish group that rose to prominence by challenging COVID-era restrictions, called for the MV Hondius to be barred from reaching Spanish shores.

“The Canary Islands cannot become Europe’s health laboratory … We demand transparency, responsibility, and protection for Spaniards to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” the group posted on X.

Alicia Rodriguez, a bar owner on Tenerife, said the incoming vessel “has been the talk of the town” for days.

“I think to a certain extent we have to be concerned, but hopefully they’ll try to handle things in the least dangerous way possible,” she told Al Jazeera .

Several Spanish passengers told The Associated Press news agency they worry they will be ostracised once on land.

“We’re scared by all the news that’s coming out, by how people are going to receive us,” said one of the passengers, who declined to give their name.

“You see what’s out there and you realise you’re heading into the eye of a hurricane,” said another passenger, who also requested anonymity.

“Many people forget that in here there are more than 140 passengers.

In reality, there are 140 human beings.”
Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them, Spanish officials said.

They will then be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, officials added, with the parts of the airport they travel through being cordoned off.