Spanish Islands Refuse To Take Hantavirus Ship, As Latest Patient Arrives in Hospital
· Time
The president of the Canary Islands has said he will not allow passengers from a cruise ship currently experiencing a deadly hantavirus outbreak to disembark on the Spanish-owned archipelago, pushing back on plans announced by the country’s prime minister to allow the boat to dock.
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Fernando Clavijo, the leader for the islands that sit just over 60 miles off the Moroccan coast, said Wednesday that he would not “blindly endanger the safety of the Canary Islands population” by letting crew and passengers onboard the MV Hondius to receive medical examinations should the cruise ship dock.
The outbreak of the rodent-borne virus on the cruise ship, which has 149 people onboard, has so far resulted in eight patients infected by the virus, three of whom have been confirmed by lab testing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. Three people have died after contracting the disease.
Read more: What to Know About Hantavirus Amid a Suspected Cruise-Ship Outbreak
On Wednesday, it was announced that a French national who was not on board the ship but who had shared a flight with an infected passenger had also contracted the virus. The latest patient “presented himself to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, and is receiving care, the WHO added. The Swiss Public Health Office confirmed that the man had returned from a trip to South America at the end of April, and has since tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus.
Hantavirus is predominantly spread by contact with the urine, droppings, and saliva of rats or mice, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It can also, on rare occasions, spread through scratches or bites from rodents.
The virus generally does not spread through human contact, but the Andes strain, one of the hantavirus family, can spread through droplets among close contacts, experts have told TIME.
The health ministry initially said the ship could dock
Clavijo’s refusal runs counter to Tuesday’s announcement by the Spanish Health Ministry, which said such an arrival would go ahead. “Spain has a moral and legal obligation to help these people, among whom are also several Spanish citizens,” the ministry said. “Crew and passengers will be properly examined, cared for and transferred to their respective countries.”
But Clavijo has rejected this, claiming in an interview with Spanish radio COPE that it differs from what he discussed during a technical meeting on Tuesday, when Canary Islands health authorities agreed that the vessel would not arrive at the islands.
The regional president said that the original procedure was “to evacuate the hantavirus patients by air ambulance, and for the rest to remain on the ship and be transferred to the country of origin of this vessel, which is the Netherlands.”
He added: “I cannot allow it to enter the Canary Islands.”
Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the MV Hondius, said on Wednesday that the planned destination for the vessel following the stop in Cape Verde was still the Canary Islands.
On Wednesday, three passengers with suspected hantavirus onboard the cruise ship were evacuated in Cape Verde, and are en route to the Netherlands to receive medical care, WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He added that the overall public health risk remains low.
A team of medical staff in hazmat suits was seen conducting the evacuation, disembarking the patients from the ship onto a smaller boat, which then headed back to port in Praia, the capital.
The Dutch foreign ministry has confirmed the three patients as a 56 year-old British national, a 41 year-old Dutch national, and a 65 year-old German.
Clavijo argued that the planned examinations in the Canary Islands could instead take place in Cape Verde, where the vessel was as of Wednesday morning. “Why subject these passengers to a three-day voyage to the Canary Islands to do the same thing here that they can do in Cape Verde,” he told COPE.
The regional president has also requested an “urgent” meeting with Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, over the disagreement. “I am not going to blindly jeopardize the safety of the Canary Islands population with a government that is not behaving loyally,” said Clavijo.
TIME has reached out to the Spanish government for comment.
Who has died from hantavirus and who is infected?
As confirmed by the WHO, there are eight cases so far, but only three have been confirmed by lab testing.
Three of those infected have died, the first of whom was a Dutch national, who died on April 11. The cause of death could not be determined onboard the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions said.
Oceanwide Expeditions said it was informed on April 27 that the wife of the deceased had also died, after disembarking the ship with her husband’s body. On May 2, a German national onboard the ship also died.
A British national is reported to have become seriously ill, and was evacuated to receive medical treatment in South Africa. The patient is in intensive care, but said to be improving, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove of WHO said on Tuesday.