Spain prepares evacuations as hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads to Canary Islands

Spanish authorities on Friday were preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirusstricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands where health officials have said they will perform careful evacuationsThe vessel is expected to arrive Sunday at the Spanish island of Tenerife off the coast of West Africa and passengers will be taken to a completely isolated cordonedoff area said the head of Spains emergency services Virginia BarconesWhile three people have died since the outbreak and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected with hantavirus cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Thursday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the Dutchflagged ship the MV HondiusThe World Health Organisation considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low On Friday the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger has tested negative for hantavirus Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus potential transmissibilityThe flight attendants negative result should ease concerns among the public said Christian Lindmeier a WHO spokesman The risk remains absolutely low he said This is not a new COVIDHantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isnt easily transmitted between people But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposureHealth authorities across four continents were continuing to track down and monitor more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them since thenCountries scramble to track passengers who disembarkedOn April 24 nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing Dutch officials and the ships operator said Thursday It wasnt until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger the WHO saidThe KLM flight attendant who tested negative for the virus was working on a flight headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25 and had later fallen ill She was taken to an isolation ward at an Amsterdam hospital on ThursdayThe cruise passenger briefly aboard that flight a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg where she diedThe Dutch public health service is currently undertaking contact tracing on passengers from the flight who had contact with the ill woman before she left the plane On Friday UK health authorities said a third British national who had been a passenger on the ship is suspected of being infected with hantavirusThe UK Health Security Agency said the person is on the island of Tristan da Cunha a remote British overseas territory in the south Atlantic where the ship stopped in April There was no word on the condition of the person Spanish health officials said Friday a woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante has symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection and is being testedShe was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after travelling on the cruise ship and contracting the virus Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters Two other Britons who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus One is hospitalised in the Netherlands and the other in South AfricaAuthorities in South Africa are working to trace contacts of any passengers who previously got off the ship They have focused mainly on an April 25 flight from the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic to Johannesburg the day after some passengers disembarked on the islandSpanish authorities detail disembarkation plansOfficials sought to reassure the public in the Canary Islands about possible exposure to the virus among the general population Spanish officials said Friday that once the ship reaches Tenerife passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take themPassengers will be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles officials said adding that the parts of the airport they travel through will also be cordoned off Spain has requested medically equipped aircraft in case passengers report symptoms Barcones said in order to avoid any contact with the general population but it wasnt known if those would be availableThe United States has agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to repatriate its 17 citizens from the cruise ship The British government also said it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British nationals onboardThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies 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