State Department Charters Yacht to Evacuate American Exposed to Hantavirus from Pitcairn Island

The State Department spent three-quarters of a million dollars to evacuate an American citizen exposed to hantavirus from Pitcairn Island. Washington Examiner reported the department used its K Fund emergency budget to charter the Titaina Explorer yacht for the extraction. The woman contracted the virus in April while aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius.

Two government officials and a government document obtained by the Associated Press confirmed the exposure occurred on the vessel, which departed Patagonia with roughly 150 passengers on April 1. MV Hondius made stops in Antarctica and the South Atlantic before arriving in Cape Verde. The woman left the ship and traveled to Pitcairn Island via San Francisco and Fiji.

It remains unclear why she continued from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific. Three people have died as a result of the cruise ship outbreak. The Titaina Explorer, owned by French explorer Olivier de Kersauson, is now carrying the patient approximately 1,200 miles to Easter Island, a Chilean territory whose airport offers service to Santiago.

The evacuation operation is ongoing and its final cost is not yet determined. The State Department is considering transferring $50 million into the K Fund, with $35 million allocated for embassy security and $15 million drawn from diplomatic programming. The department has also considered asking Congress to add money to the fund, according to the Associated Press.

Pitcairn Island has roughly 50 inhabitants, primarily descended from nine British sailors who mutinied on the HMS Bounty in 1789. In 2004, around one-third of the island’s male population, including its mayor, went on trial in New Zealand for sex crimes against children. The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department for comment.