Hantavirus-hit cruise ship set to dock in Rotterdam

A cruise ship that triggered worldwide concern following a deadly hantavirus outbreak is set to complete its voyage in Rotterdam on Monday, with the remaining skeleton crew expected to enter weeks of quarantine, News.Az reports, citing AFP.

The MV Hondius is scheduled to arrive at the Dutch port between 10:00 am (0800 GMT) and midday (1000 GMT), officials said.

The vessel will disembark the 27 people still on board, consisting of 25 crew members and two medical staff.

Operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship drew international attention after three passengers died from hantavirus, a rare disease for which there are currently no vaccines or specific treatments.

The World Health Organization has sought to calm fears that the outbreak could mirror the Covid-19 pandemic, emphasizing that human-to-human transmission is extremely uncommon.

“There is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on May 12.

However, Tedros warned that additional cases could still appear because hantavirus has an incubation period lasting several weeks.

According to an AFP tally based on official information, hantavirus has been confirmed in six patients, while another case remains probable.

A patient in Canada has also provisionally tested positive, although the individual is not showing symptoms and the test result has yet to be confirmed.

Following the ship’s arrival in the Canary Islands on May 10, more than 120 passengers and crew members were evacuated either to their home countries or to the Netherlands, which took a leading role because the vessel sails under a Dutch flag.

A 65-year-old French woman developed symptoms during a repatriation flight and was later admitted in critical condition to a Paris hospital after testing positive for hantavirus.

Two additional patients — one Dutch and one British — were urgently airlifted from the vessel to hospitals in the Netherlands.

Dutch officials said both patients remain in stable condition, while the British patient has recovered sufficiently to return home and continue self-isolation.

All other evacuees transferred to the Netherlands have tested negative for the virus. Some remain in quarantine facilities in the country, while others have already returned home.

According to Oceanwide Expeditions, everyone still aboard the ship is asymptomatic and under close medical observation by the two doctors on board.

Late Sunday, the WHO maintained its assessment that the outbreak represents a “low risk.”

“While additional cases may still occur among passengers and crew members exposed before containment measures were implemented, the risk of onward transmission is expected to be reduced following disembarkation and the implementation of control measures,” the organization said.

Those disembarking in Rotterdam include 17 people from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands — including the two medical staff — four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland.

Some individuals will remain in quarantine facilities at the port, while others will self-isolate at home.

Also remaining aboard the vessel is the body of a German woman who died during the journey.

Once docked, the MV Hondius will undergo extensive cleaning and disinfection procedures, according to the operator.

Oceanwide Expeditions said details of the operation are still being finalized, but cleaning will begin immediately after arrival.

The voyage originally started on April 1 in Ushuaia and included visits to remote islands in the South Atlantic before the ship headed north toward Cape Verde.

The cruise had initially been due to end there, but the vessel later sailed to Tenerife in the Canary Islands to carry out the evacuation process.

The MV Hondius also created diplomatic complications as several countries negotiated over where the ship could dock and which nations would accept and treat passengers.

Cape Verde declined to receive the vessel, leaving it anchored off the capital Praia while three patients were flown to Europe for treatment.

Spain later permitted the ship to anchor near the Canary Islands so passengers and crew could be evacuated by air, although regional authorities in the Atlantic archipelago strongly opposed the move.

Hantavirus spreads through contact with the urine, saliva and faeces of infected rodents and is endemic in Argentina, where the voyage began.

The infected patients were found to carry the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to spread between humans.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev