UK paratroopers drop into remote island over hantavirus
Paratroopers have landed with paramedics and medical supplies at Tristan da Cunha, Britain’s most remote overseas territory, after a suspected case of hantavirus was confirmed.
A team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians from 16th Air Assault Brigade jumped from an RAF A400M transport aircraft, which flew 6788km from RAF Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire to Ascension Island and then flew 3000km 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 to be sent first to a British man who health officials said was a passenger on a cruise ship that docked at the island between April 13 and 15, and who contracted a hantavirus outbreak.
The World Health Organization said the man reported symptoms consistent with hantavirus on April 28 and was in stable condition and in isolation.
“With oxygen supplies on the island at critical levels, an airlift with medical personnel was the only method of delivering vital care to the patient in a timely manner,” the Ministry of Defense said. he said.
Home to approximately 200 people, Tristan da Cunha is located halfway between South Africa and South America.
It is the world’s most remote inhabited island, at more than 2,400 km away, and is a six-day boat ride from its nearest inhabited neighbour, St Helena.
Medical needs usually require a two-person medical team and are normally only accessible by boat as there is no airstrip.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were previously delivered by military aircraft on May 7 to Ascension Island, where another British man from the cruise ship disembarked before flying to South Africa.
“The skyward arrival of paratroopers, medical personnel and medical supplies gave hopeful reassurance to the people of Tristan da Cunha,” said Brigadier General Ed Cartwright, 16th Air Assault Brigade Commander.
“The paratroopers – I spoke to them – described it to me as ‘a pretty tasty jump’,” he told Sky News.
“They would get off the plane, they would have to turn directly into the wind to avoid being pushed past the island and into the Atlantic, and then they would go through the cloud and down a very difficult descent into the drop zone, which was a rock-strewn golf course.”
with PA
