The Ministry of Health accepted last night the request of the World Health Organization (WHO) and will finally host the cruise ship Hondius , where a hantavirus outbreak has affected seven people, three of whom have died. The ship will dock in the Canary Islands after the evacuation of the three people still on board who show symptoms. Among them is the crew doctor, who is in serious condition and will be evacuated on a hospital plane in the coming hours.
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The Ministry of Health of the Netherlands, where the ship originates, had announced in the afternoon that it would deploy air ambulances to repatriate the three possible infected travelers. An operation that will be carried out in coordination with the authorities of Cape Verde, where the ship is currently located, before it heads to the Canary archipelago.
After the WHO visit, the ship will depart for the islands, where it will arrive in three or four days
Although the Spanish Government, in coordination with the regional government, had initially rejected the cruise docking in the Canary Islands, the ministry has finally responded to the WHO’s request appealing to the “compliance with international law and the humanitarian spirit.” “The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is conducting a thorough examination of the ship to determine which people must be urgently evacuated in Cape Verde itself. The rest will continue towards the Canary Islands, where they expect to arrive within three or four days,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Authorities indicate that the port where the ship will dock has not yet been defined. Once there, crew and passengers will be examined, treated, and transferred to their respective countries. The process will be coordinated through a common case and contact management protocol developed by the WHO and the ECDC with safety protocols. “Both medical care and transfers will be carried out in specially designated spaces and transport enabled ad hoc for this situation, avoiding all contact with the local population and ensuring the safety of healthcare personnel at all times,” the ministry statement adds.
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The World Health Organization has explained that Cape Verde cannot carry out this operation due to its own healthcare capabilities. The Canary Islands, on the other hand, do meet the appropriate healthcare requirements and logistics for this operation. “Spain has a moral and legal obligation to assist these people, among whom are also several Spanish citizens,” the statement concludes.
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The Hondius was yesterday off the coast of Cape Verde with 147 people on board including passengers and crew, fourteen of whom are Spanish nationals. Since it set sail from Ushuaia (Argentina) on April 1, three people have died and a fourth has been evacuated to a hospital in South Africa, where they are admitted to an ICU. At least three other people have fallen ill, the WHO reported yesterday. The deaths have been attributed to a rare hantavirus infection, which can cause a fulminant respiratory failure syndrome. Passengers and crew have been instructed to stay in their cabins to avoid contact with others.
Before deciding that the ship would head to the Canary Islands, a medical team visited it in Cape Verde to conduct an epidemiological investigation and from there decide the next actions, the ministry reported. “Whether in the Netherlands, Spain, or Europe, we have to give the most humane and reasonable solution to this problem,” Fernando Simón, director of the Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies, had said before the final decision. “We cannot have 147 people locked up on a ship.” The Ministry of Health had explained that “the health risk to the general population is extremely low,” while denouncing “the risk of misinformation originating on social networks that can lead to social alarmism and the spread of hoaxes.”
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Although the coincidence of several hantavirus infection cases on the cruise of the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions indicates that there have probably been infections on board the ship, the WHO reminds that hantaviruses have little capacity to be transmitted between people. For contagion to occur, close and/or prolonged contact between the person transmitting the infection and the one contracting it is necessary.
Awaiting the results of genetic analyses that will clarify the identity of the virus causing the outbreak, the WHO is working with the hypothesis that it is the Andes hantavirus. Proof of the difficulty this virus has in spreading is that the largest outbreak ever recorded, which occurred in Argentina between 2018 and 2019, affected only 34 people over three months.
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