The United States government is sending a repatriation plane through the difficult process of safely evacuating 17 Americans from their crewed vessel. outbreak of deadly hantavirus.
The plane is being sent by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, and will be used to transport Americans back to the US in cooperation with Spanish officials, according to the US State Department.
Americans will be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a special biocontainment unit, when they return to the US, the university and the CDC official said.
Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said at a press conference on Friday that they are preparing for the arrival of 17 to 19 Americans.
“Each person will have their own room,” said Wadman. “Each room looks like a hotel room with WiFi access, exercise equipment. If you’re confined for a long time, those can be important in terms of making sure they’re comfortable.”
Wadman said that at this time, there is no set period of isolation.
MV Hondius, cruise ship center of global concern The spread of this unusual virus, currently from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands, a group of Spanish islands off the west coast of Africa. It is expected to reach the coast of Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands, early Sunday local time.
Sometime between Sunday and Monday, Hondius will go into a process of moving passengers slowly to avoid the spread of the virus.
Since the officials of the Canary Islands refused to allow Hondius to stop at Tenerife, the boat will anchor off the coast.
The reduction will take place internationally, Spanish officials said at a press conference on Friday. Once the passengers are confirmed as asymptomatic, they will disembark Hondius in groups of five in small boats to take them to shore. They will then board buses and head straight to the airport, where their nation’s plane will be ready to take off, Spanish officials said.
“I repeat another day: All the places they will go to will be isolated,” said Virginia Balcones, secretary general of the civil protection. “There will be no communication with ordinary workers.”
AFP via Getty Images
The World Health Organization is working to provide health checks for everyone on board and “check what level of exposure” each person may have had to confirm hantavirus cases, said Anais Legand, the WHO’s chief technical officer, on Friday. This will help WHO provide guidance to passengers on next steps, he said.
None of the 147 people on board had symptoms of the disease on Friday, WHO officials and Spanish officials said.
Medical flights will be on standby in case anyone develops symptoms but the practical considerations will be to use a regular flight, Balcones said.
The Honidus, a Dutch-flagged ship, will leave the Canary Islands and head to the Netherlands with a skeleton crew, according to Spanish health officials.
There are nine confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus stemming from the cruise, including the deaths of three people – a Dutch couple and a woman who died on the ship. The Dutch couple had spent months traveling around Argentina, Uruguay and Chile and spent time bird watching in areas known to carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only virus that can be transmitted from person to person.
Angela Hewlett, medical director at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, said the virus is often transmitted through close contact with an infected person.
“I don’t see this as progressing into a global pandemic, although there are still a lot of unknowns, and I think we all have to see that,” Hewlett said at a news conference.
More than a dozen countries, incl the USthey are already monitoring people getting off the ship before the confirmation of hantavirus among passengers on the cruise.
As health officials have been doing all along, Spanish Health Secretary Javier Padilla stressed that hantavirus – even the Andes strain – does not spread as easily as COVID-19 and the risk to the general population is low.
“We have been saying this, the current situation is very low risk for the general public,” said Padilla.
