The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is expected to arrive in Tenerife on Saturday to assist Spanish authorities in coordinating the evacuation of passengers aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius following a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
According to sources within Spain’s health ministry, Tedros will join the country’s health and interior ministers at an emergency command centre on the Canary Island to oversee coordination between government agencies, health monitoring and the implementation of surveillance and response measures.
Three passengers — a Dutch couple and a German woman — have died after contracting the rare virus, while several others on board have fallen ill. The Dutch-flagged expedition vessel is carrying about 150 passengers and crew and is due to reach Tenerife on Sunday.
Tenerife Hantavirus Evacuation Plans For MV Hondius Passengers
Once the ship arrives off the coast of Tenerife, passengers will be transferred to land by smaller boats and taken by bus to the airport, where special charter flights will return them to their home countries.
Spanish authorities have confirmed the vessel will anchor offshore and will not be permitted to dock. Officials say the evacuation must be completed between Sunday and Monday before worsening weather conditions affect operations.
Dock workers in Tenerife staged protests on Friday against the ship’s arrival.
The United States Department of State said it was arranging an evacuation flight for American passengers, who will then be transported to a quarantine facility in Nebraska.
WHO Says Hantavirus Risk To General Public Remains Low
The WHO stressed on Friday that the outbreak presents very little danger to the wider public.
“This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who’s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters.
He said preliminary observations from the ship suggested that even some cabin mates of infected passengers had not contracted the virus.
“The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person,” he said.
WHO officials reported six confirmed cases out of eight initially suspected infections. No suspected cases remain on board.
The virus identified in the outbreak is the Andes strain, the only known form of hantavirus capable of spreading from person to person, raising concern among international health authorities.
International Monitoring Expands After KLM Flight Exposure
A flight attendant with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines who had contact with an infected passenger later developed mild symptoms but tested negative for hantavirus.
The passenger involved, the wife of the first victim, had boarded a flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on 25 April but was removed before departure. She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish health secretary Javier Padilla said a woman seated two rows behind the deceased passenger on that flight had developed symptoms in eastern Spain and was being tested while isolated in hospital.
“This is a pretty unlikely case,” he told reporters: someone “two rows behind the person who died with hantavirus”.
Spanish interior ministry sources also said a South African woman who travelled on the same flight remained symptom-free after spending a week in Barcelona before returning home.
Passengers Remain Calm As Doctors Join Cruise Ship
Two residents of Singapore who had been aboard the vessel tested negative but will remain in quarantine as a precaution.
The MV Hondius departed Ushuaia on 1 April on a transatlantic voyage bound for Cape Verde. Three suspected cases, including two crew members who later tested positive, were evacuated from Cape Verde to the Netherlands.
The ship also called at several remote British territories in the South Atlantic. UK health authorities said there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, home to around 220 residents.
Travel vlogger Kasem Ibn Hattuta said passengers were reassured after doctors joined the vessel.
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“We finally left Cape Verde which was a relief for everyone on board, specially knowing that our sick colleagues are finally getting the medical care they need,” he said in a statement.
He added that morale remained strong: “People are smiling and taking the situation calmly.”
Passengers are wearing masks indoors and maintaining physical distance from one another, he said.
