Spanish authorities prepare for hantavirus cruise ship arrival

Spanish authorities are preparing to evacuate more than 140 passengers and crew from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship expected to arrive in Tenerife early Sunday. The MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged vessel, will dock at a specially isolated area in the Canary Islands following an outbreak that has killed at least three passengers.

“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services. Spanish officials have emphasized comprehensive safety protocols to prevent any risk to the general population during the evacuation process.

The United States has arranged to send an aircraft to repatriate its 17 citizens aboard the vessel, while the British government plans to charter a plane for nearly two dozen British nationals. Dutch officials confirmed they are in close communication with the ship’s owner and authorities from countries whose citizens are onboard.

The World Health Organization maintains that the risk to the wider public remains low. A flight attendant who had been suspected of contracting the virus after a brief encounter with an infected passenger has tested negative, alleviating concerns about broader transmission.

“The risk remains absolutely low,” said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman. “This is not a new COVID.”

Hantavirus is typically spread through inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and rarely transmits between humans. However, the Andes virus variant implicated in this outbreak may be capable of limited human-to-human transmission. Symptoms typically develop between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions reported Thursday that no passengers currently on board are showing symptoms of infection.

The outbreak has triggered an international contact-tracing effort across four continents. On April 24, approximately two dozen people from at least 12 different countries disembarked the ship before the outbreak was detected. Health authorities only confirmed hantavirus in a passenger on May 2, according to the WHO.

Particular concern centered around a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship. She became ill while on a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25 and was removed from the plane in Johannesburg, where she later died. Dutch health authorities are now tracing passengers from that flight who had contact with her.

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency reported Friday that a third British national is suspected of having contracted the virus. This individual is on Tristan da Cunha, a remote British territory in the South Atlantic where the ship stopped in April. Two other British citizens from the cruise have been confirmed positive – one hospitalized in the Netherlands and another in South Africa.

South African authorities are focusing their contact tracing on an April 25 flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, which carried passengers who had disembarked from the ship.

Spanish officials have detailed strict isolation protocols for the evacuation in Tenerife. Barcones emphasized that passengers will be transported directly from the ship to the airport in isolated vehicles through cordoned-off areas, proceeding immediately to flights to their countries of origin.

“The people of the Canary Islands, the men and women living there, can rest assured that there will be absolutely no possibility of contact at any time,” Barcones said, addressing concerns among local residents who have drawn parallels to the early days of COVID-19.

The MV Hondius incident highlights the challenges of containing disease outbreaks on cruise ships, which can quickly become hotspots for transmission due to their enclosed environments and international passenger lists. Though health experts stress the low risk of a wider outbreak, the situation demonstrates the importance of rapid international coordination in public health responses.

The case also underscores the continuing vigilance of global health systems following the COVID-19 pandemic, with authorities moving swiftly to implement containment measures and reassure the public about the limited transmission potential of the hantavirus compared to coronavirus.