The last remaining passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship flew home Monday to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine after a hantavirus outbreak killed three people and infected others, health officials said. The ship docked in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted passengers from ship to shore over two days, concluding Monday.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk to the public is low and urged calm. “If they stayed longer on the ship, the situation could have been difficult,” he said. “There is nothing to fear, the risk is low, this is not another COVID.”
Three cruise ship passengers have died, and six people with confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus are being quarantined, according to the WHO. The lab results of an American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday. Health authorities say it is the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship.
The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message Monday praising passengers and crew for their courage and perseverance, and called for respect for their privacy. “I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike,” he said.
The French woman who tested positive for the hantavirus was in intensive care in stable condition at a Paris hospital, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Monday. Four other French passengers who returned negative tests remained in isolation at the same hospital.
Sixteen American passengers — one of them a British-U.S. dual citizen — were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility and a biocontainment unit, after landing early Monday. They were being assessed for close contacts and risk levels. An American who tested positive for hantavirus on the ship was taken to the biocontainment unit and will be tested again. Dr. Angela Hewlett, the unit’s medical director, said the passenger “is doing well and not having symptoms at this time.” Dr. Michael Wadman, the quarantine unit’s medical director, said the others arrived “in good shape, good spirits.”
Two additional American passengers, a couple, arrived Monday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. One of them had mild symptoms and will be tested for hantavirus. Dr. Brendan Jackson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned that symptoms alone do not confirm infection. “It doesn’t necessarily mean, just because someone has symptoms, that they’re going to end up having this illness,” he said.
Some public health experts have criticized the U.S. government’s response as slow, but Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rejected the notion that cuts at his agency had left the country less prepared. “We have this under control,” Kennedy said Monday, “and we’re not worried about it.”
Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns and operates the cruise ship, said 25 crew and two medical professionals remained on board Monday as the Hondius departed the Canary Islands, expected to arrive in Rotterdam on Sunday. The Hondius had left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, and a Dutch passenger died on board April 11. It was not until early May that the WHO said it was responding to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which by then was off Cape Verde.
South African health authorities said Monday that a British man who was evacuated from the ship on April 27 and admitted to a Johannesburg hospital was gradually improving.
Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. The Andes virus variant detected in this outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases, health officials said. Symptoms — fever, chills, muscle aches — typically appear one to eight weeks after exposure. There is no cure or vaccine, but early detection and treatment improve survival rates. Tedros advised that returning passengers should stay in quarantine for 42 days, though he noted the WHO cannot enforce its guidance and countries may handle monitoring differently.