WHO Head Seeks To Reassure Residents Of Spanish Island Where Hantavirus-Stricken Ship Is Headed

TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought to reassure Spanish island residents Saturday that travelers were safe. Cruise ship infected with hantavirus They are expected to be evacuated and are given the direct message that the virus is “not just another COVID.”

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius is heading for Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa with more than 140 passengers and crew and is expected to arrive on the island of Tenerife early Sunday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was due to travel to the island on Saturday, along with Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. coordinate disembarkation from passengers and some crew.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘epidemic’ and watch a ship sailing towards your shores, memories come to the surface that none of us can fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real and I am not ignoring it for a moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.

“But you need to hear me clearly: This is not another Covid-19. The current public health risk of hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this clearly, and now I will tell you again,” Tedros added.

The World Health Organization, Spanish authorities and cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions said no one is currently on board Hondius symptoms of the virus.

Hantavirus can cause life threatening disease. When does it usually spread? people breathe in contaminated residue It is caused by rodent feces and is not easily transmitted between humans. However Andean virus There may be an outbreak detected on a cruise ship can spread In rare cases among humans. Symptoms usually appear one to eight weeks after exposure.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship tested positive for hantavirus.

Some in Tenerife say they are worried. There are some Spanish passengers on the cruise ship expressed his concerns It’s about being stigmatized.

“Let me tell you, I didn’t like it very much,” said resident Simon Vidal, 69. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat here from another country? Why not from somewhere else, why bring them to the Canary Islands?”

Others said they empathized with the passengers on the boat but were still concerned.

“The reality is that the situation is very worrying,” said Samantha Aguero, a 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant. He added: “We feel a little unsafe, we don’t feel it because there are 100% safety measures in place to welcome it. After all, it is a virus and we have experienced it during the pandemic. But we also need to be empathetic.”

Garcia said passengers and some crew would land in Tenerife “under maximum security conditions.”

The ship will not dock but will anchor and people will be transported by small boats. Everyone disembarking the ship will be checked for symptoms and will not be removed from the ship until a flight is waiting for them in Tenerife, Garcia said at a news conference in Madrid. There are currently more than 20 different nationalities on board.

Maria Van Kerkove, director of the WHO Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said in a briefing on Saturday that authorities aim to complete evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday.

Both the US and the UK agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. The Americans will be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

All Spanish passengers will be transported to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide reported that there were 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.

Garcia said those disembarking will leave their luggage and will be allowed to take only a small bag containing essential items, a cell phone, a charger and documents.

The minister added that some crew members, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship bound for the Netherlands, where it will be disinfected.

Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism so that a medical evacuation plane equipped with infectious diseases is ready in case anyone on board falls ill, according to a letter sent to parliament late Friday by the Dutch foreign and health ministers. This person will then be transported by air to mainland Europe.

The letter stated that the Dutch government would work with the Spanish authorities and the cruise company to arrange the repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after their arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Those without symptoms will quarantine at home for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.

It was stated that since the ship is under the Dutch flag, the Netherlands can temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them under quarantine.

Health authorities on four continents were tracking and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who got off the plane before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to track down others who might have come into contact with them.

Almost two weeks on April 24 After the first passenger died Dutch officials and the ship’s operator said more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing.

Health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a traveler on May 2.

Dutch public health authorities are monitoring people who were on a flight briefly boarded by a Dutch cruise passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Harald Wychgel, spokesman for the Dutch National Institute of Public Health, told The Associated Press on Saturday that three people on the plane who had symptoms tested negative for hantavirus.

Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.