The ship has been at the center of an international health alert since Saturday, when three passengers died suspected of having the disease
Three suspected cases of hantavirus aboard the cruise ship anchored off the coast of Cape Verde will soon be evacuated through this West African country, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP this Tuesday (5).
As soon as the two patients with symptoms of hantavirus and a person who had close contact with them, but without clinical manifestations, are removed, the MV Hondius “will be able to continue its route” to the Spanish Canary Islands or the Netherlands, Ann Lindstrand, WHO representative in Cape Verde, told AFP.
O ship has been at the center of an international health alert since Saturdaywhen it was revealed that hantavirus, a disease transmitted by infected rodents, was suspected to be behind the deaths of three passengers.
According to Lindstrand, an ambulance will take the three supposedly infected people from the port ofand Beach to a nearby airportfrom where they will be evacuated by plane.
Although the situation “changes from one moment to the next,” Lindstrand said that once this “complicated expedition” is completed, “the ship may leave at some point in the morning“.
Although “the initial plan was for the ship to leave here towards the Canary Islands, to the port of Tenerife”, the cruise, operated by Dutch tour company Oceanwide Expeditionscould end up returning to the Netherlands, he added.
“There were discussions about the possibility of sending the ship directly to the Netherlands,” Lindstrand said. “So we continue to wait, but we believe it will be either the Canary Islands or the Netherlands,” he added.
For its part, the Spanish Ministry of Health indicated in a statement that “an attempt will be made to evacuate symptomatic cases and high-risk contacts in Cape Verde” and pointed out that, in principle, “there would be no reason” to make a stopover in the Spanish archipelago “unless new symptomatic cases appear during the periodroute between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands“.
Even so, he stressed that he “will continually evaluate the situation and provide assistance where necessary”, taking into account “the balance between the risks and benefits of different actions”.
According to Oceanwide Expeditions, no “new symptomatic cases” were detected of hantavirus on board the ship.
