British paratroopers lead airdrop onto Tristan da Cunha for suspected hantavirus case
MADRID, May 10 (Reuters) – British paratroopers have landed in Tristan da Cunha, Britain’s most remote overseas territory, with medics and medical supplies after a suspected case of hantavirus was confirmed there.
A team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians from 16th Air Assault Brigade jumped from an RAF A400M transport aircraft flying 6,788 km (4,218 mi) from RAF Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire to Ascension Island and then 3,000 km south to Tristan da Cunha.
Oxygen supplies and other medical aid were left with them on Saturday. The A400M was refueled in flight by a supporting RAF Voyager.
In the statement made by the Ministry of Defense, it was stated that the operation was the first time that the UK army deployed medical personnel to provide humanitarian support through parachute jumping.
The supplies were primarily sent to a British man who UK health officials say was a passenger on the cruise ship that docked on the island between April 13 and 15 and contracted a hantavirus outbreak. The man reported symptoms consistent with hantavirus on April 28 and he was stable and in isolation, WHO said.
“With oxygen supplies on the island at a critical level, airlifting medical personnel was the only method of delivering vital care to the patient in a timely manner,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The statement was included.
Home to only around 200 people, Tristan da Cunha is located halfway between South Africa and South America. At more than 2,400 km long, it is the world’s most remote inhabited island and is a six-day boat ride from the nearest inhabited island, St Helena. It typically relies on a two-man medical team for its health needs and is normally only accessible by boat as it has no airstrip.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were previously delivered by military aircraft on May 7 from the cruise ship to Ascension Island, where another British man disembarked before being medically evacuated to South Africa.
“The sky arrival of paratroopers, medical personnel and medical supplies reassured the people of Tristan da Cunha,” said Brigadier General Ed Cartwright, 16th Air Assault Brigade Commander.
(Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
