U.S. Sends Repatriation Plane for 17 Americans from Cruise Ship with Hantavirus Cases

The United States government is sending a repatriation plane to evacuate 17 Americans from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which is dealing with a hantavirus outbreak that has resulted in nine confirmed or suspected cases and three deaths. The Americans will be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a special biocontainment unit.

Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said at a news conference on Friday that they are preparing for 17 to 19 Americans to arrive. Each individual will have their own room that includes WiFi and exercise equipment if the quarantine is prolonged.

Wadman said that at this point there is not a defined quarantine period. The MV Hondius is currently traveling from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands and is expected to reach the coast of Tenerife early Sunday local time. The ship will anchor offshore after officials in the Canary Islands refused to allow it to dock in Tenerife.

Sometime between Sunday and Monday the Hondius will undergo a process of slowly removing passengers in groups of five using small boats to avoid spread of the virus. Passengers confirmed to be asymptomatic will then board buses directly to the airport runway where their nation's plane will be ready for takeoff.

All areas they travel through will be isolated with no contact with civilian personnel, Spanish officials said at a press conference Friday. >The CDC said Friday night that it is sending a team of epidemiologists and medical professionals to the Canary Islands to conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger and provide recommendations for the level of monitoring required.

The World Health Organization is working to provide health checks for everyone on board and assess what level of exposure each person may have had to confirmed hantavirus cases. None of the 147 people on board was experiencing any symptoms of the disease on Friday.

There are nine confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus stemming from the cruise, including three deaths: a Dutch couple and another woman who died on the ship. The Dutch couple had spent months traveling around Argentina, Uruguay and Chile and spent time bird-watching in locations known to carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only strain that is transmissible from human to human.

Angela Hewlett, medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, said the virus is typically transmitted through very close contact with an infected individual. Hewlett said she does not see this as progressing to a worldwide pandemic although there are still a lot of unknowns.

More than a dozen countries including the United States are already monitoring people who disembarked from the ship prior to hantavirus being confirmed among passengers. Spanish officials have said that hantavirus, even the Andes strain, does not spread easily like COVID-19 and the risk for most people is low.

The Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship, will depart the Canary Islands and head home to the Netherlands with a skeleton crew after the passengers are removed. Medicalized planes will be on standby in case anyone develops symptoms but the working assumption is that standard aircraft will be used.

President Trump said the United States has hantavirus and that it is being studied very closely, adding that officials seem to have things under very good control and that it is not easily transferable unlike COVID.