US national on repatriation flight tests positive for hantavirus

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. US national on repatriation flight tests positive for hantavirus12 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleJaroslav LukivReutersUS passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are instructed by authorities after disembarking the vessel in Tenerife, SpainAn American national on a repatriation flight has tested positive for hantavirus while another has mild symptoms after leaving a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of the virus, the US health department has said. Both passengers on the government charter plane are travelling in "biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution", the statement says. Upon arrival, all 17 US citizens on the flight will be further screened at a medical facility in Nebraska.

They are among more than 90 passengers of the MV Hondius ship, now docked in Spain's Canary Islands, who are being repatriated. Officials say the risk of a major outbreak is very low. Three passengers - a Dutch couple and a German woman - have died after travelling on the vessel.

The Details

Two of them are confirmed to have had the virus. Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain - which the World Health Organization (WHO) believes was contracted by some of the Dutch ship's passengers while in South America - is possible. Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and shortness of breath.

How worried should we be about hantavirus? Army parachutes onto remote island to help Briton with suspected hantavirusIn its statement early on Monday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said upon arrival that all passengers "will undergo clinical assessment" at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Seven other US passengers have already returned and are being monitored in their home states.

A British national who resides in the US was being evacuated along with the 17 American passengers. Meanwhile, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the decision by the US not to follow his organisation's guidelines over the hantavirus outbreak "may have risks". The WHO has recommended 42 days of isolation for those leaving the MV Hondius.

What Experts Say

But Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said he did not want to cause public panic, insisting that human-to-human transmission was rare and it should not be treated like the Covid virus. Cruise ship passengers were pictured wearing blue gowns, bouffant caps, and medical face masks as they disembarked on Sunday at the port of Grandilla de Abona in Tenerife. French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said a French woman who had arrived back in the country had tested positive for the virus.

She told French media that the woman was isolating in Paris and that her health was deteriorating. The passenger was among five French nationals sailing on board the vessel. French authorities have so far traced 22 contact cases.

On Sunday, a plane carrying 20 British nationals arrived in the UK.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.