Epidemic hazard

Occupants of a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has sparked international alarm began arriving home from Spain's Canary Islands on Sunday, May 10, in a complex repatriation operation. Three passengers from the MV Hondius –a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman – have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April. But health officials have stressed that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said the evacuation of most of the ship's nearly 150 passengers and crew would continue until a final repatriation flight to Australia on Monday.
Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel onto smaller boats to reach the port of Granadilla on Tenerife. The evacuees then boarded a red Spanish army bus and traveled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy, with a protective board separating the driver from the passengers.
The evacuees changed into new protective equipment before boarding their repatriation flights, the first of which took 14 Spaniards to Madrid, where they will observe quarantine at a military hospital.
A plane bound for the Netherlands was taking 27 people, including Belgian, Greek, German, Guatemalan and Argentine citizens, Spanish civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told public broadcaster RTVE. Separate flights for Turkish, British, Irish and US citizens were also planned for Sunday.
Canary Islands authorities have warned that the operation must be completed by Monday, when adverse weather conditions will force the ship to leave. "If everything continues according to plan (...) at 19:00 the ship will set sail for the Netherlands" on Monday, Barcones said.
The Atlantic archipelago's government has consistently resisted taking in the ship, which was only authorised to anchor offshore instead of docking in the port. All passengers are asymptomatic and underwent a final medical assessment before their disembarkation, Garcia told reporters on Tenerife shortly before the operation began. Spanish authorities have insisted there will be no contact with the local population in Tenerife.
Spain "is doing what it must do, with technical and scientific rigour and full transparency, with institutional loyalty and with international cooperation", Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday.