/Agencia Anadolu
The Government of the United States has begun repatriating 17 U.S. citizens from the cruise ship MV Hondius, where a hantavirus outbreak occurred, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A flight chartered by the State Department transported the Americans who were on board, after the vessel docked on Sunday in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands (Spain), according to the health service on the social platform X.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also coordinated the evacuation effort.
Two passengers — one of whom had mild symptoms and another who tested positive for the virus — traveled in the aircraft’s biocontainment units.
The cruise passengers will first be transferred to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The symptomatic individual will later be transferred to a second specialized treatment center.
“Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo a clinical evaluation and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition,” the health service stated.
The CDC has classified the outbreak as a Level 3 emergency response, the agency’s lowest level.
The outbreak, which involves the Andes strain of hantavirus, has resulted in five confirmed cases, including three deaths, according to officials from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Scientists confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the rare Andes variant of hantavirus, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, usually through close contact.
The WHO reported that two passengers who later died had traveled through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay before boarding the cruise ship.
CDC officials noted that passengers will be monitored for approximately six weeks, reflecting the virus’s incubation period, while health authorities in several U.S. states are also tracking travelers who had already left the ship before the outbreak was confirmed.
