Spain says it took ‘all measures’ to stop hantavirus amid new positive cases

A complex repatriation operation from the Canary Islands on Sunday flew out 94 passengers and crew of 19 different nationalities from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, which had been at the centre of an international alert after three passengers died.

Medical teams escorted travellers to an airport on Tenerife under close supervision and following thorough sanitary checks.

But French and US authorities have since reported positive tests for hantavirus from one each of their evacuees.

“From the start, all the measures adopted have aimed at cutting the possible chains of transmission… all measures for prevention and control of transmission have been applied,” the Spanish health ministry said in a statement.

It said the French patient “started to feel unwell during the flight and not while she was on the ship”.

The US citizen who tested positive “did not show symptoms when they were in Cape Verde”, where the MV Hondius stopped before reaching the Canary Islands, the ministry said.

“However, the US authorities have decided to treat the case as positive. For that reason, they requested a separate evacuation, which was carried out in a separate boat.”

Two more repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands are planned on Monday to complete the evacuation of most of the almost 150 passengers and crew.

After refuelling, the ship is scheduled to depart for the Netherlands at 7:00 pm  (1800 GMT) with a skeleton crew.

“There are still some citizens from the Netherlands and Australia, and hopefully we can even finish before the scheduled time,” Spanish minister Angel Victor Torres told public radio RNE.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is a known but rare illness that usually spreads among rodents.

Health officials have insisted that the risk to global public health is low and dismissed comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.