Australians Evacuated from Hantavirus-Affected Cruise Ship to Wear Full PPE on Flight to Quarantine Facility

Individuals in Australia who may have come into contact with the lethal hantavirus are set to don complete personal protective equipment (PPE) during their flight to Perth. Upon arrival, they will undergo a mandatory quarantine period of no less than three weeks.

The situation involves 11 confirmed hantavirus cases among both passengers and crew from the ill-fated Dutch cruise ship, MV Hondius.

Tragically, the virus has claimed the lives of three passengers: a Dutch couple and a German woman.

Health Minister Mark Butler assured that six individuals, who will be traveling in full PPE, are currently in good health and have tested negative for the virus so far.

“This is among the most robust quarantine measures implemented globally in response to this hantavirus outbreak,” he stated to reporters on Thursday.

‘Our agencies are, and certainly I am, monitoring this outbreak very closely.

‘The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has secured a suitable aircraft and crew to transport the four Australian citizens, the permanent resident and one New Zealand resident from the Netherlands to Australia.’

The plane is scheduled to leave the Netherlands about 5.30pm AEST on Thursday and land at RAAF Base Pearce, northeast of Perth, on Friday.

Six cruise passengers infected with hantavirus will be brought back to Australia on a flight to Perth while dressed in full PPE

Health Minister Mark Butler said the government has made necessary arrangements

Butler outlined the ‘very strict conditions’ on the flight, which have been cleared and approved by the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC). 

‘Australians can have high confidence that we are doing everything to ensure that this repatriation of those six passengers is undertaken completely safely,’ he said.

‘All passengers and all crew members will travel on this flight for its duration in full personal protective equipment (PPE).

‘Those passengers will be the subject of a quarantine order to remain at the Bullsbrook quarantine facility, one of the national resilience centres set up towards the end of the Covid pandemic.

‘The quarantine order remains in place for three weeks but will be reviewed during those three weeks to determine what should take place for the remainder of the 42-day period of potential incubation that the World Health Organisation has advised.’

The six passengers will spend at least three weeks in the 500-bed Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook, approximately 40km north-east of Perth. 

They will then move into a home-based quarantine arrangement.

Butler said specialist staff have been deployed from the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre to monitor the group. 

There are 11 cases of hantavirus among the passengers and crew members on the liner

Pictured, MV Hondius cruise passengers arrive in The Netherlands on May 12

Six passengers repatriated to Australia will spend at least three weeks at an official isolation centre in Bullsbrook, northeast of Perth (Pictured, The Centre for National Resilience)

‘These are expert staff, well-experienced in infectious disease emergencies alongside a range of other emergencies that they serve the country for,’ he said. 

Butler highlighted that Australia’s quarantine processes are significantly harsher than measures taken by other countries following the repatriation flights.

‘Many countries that are repatriating passengers from this cruise ship – the United States, the UK, and others – are only subjecting their repatriated passengers to a managed quarantine arrangement at a hospital or at a centre like Bullsbrook, usually for two or three days,’ he said.

‘We have decided on a precautionary basis to take a stronger approach to that because our overriding priority is to keep the Australian community safe.’

Hantavirus, which can cause deadly lung damage and organ failure, is spread by rodents’ urine, droppings or saliva. 

When the virus makes the jump from rodents to humans, which is rare, it is usually due to the inhalation of viral spores. 

It is believed that the first victim of the virus may have been infected at a landfill site on the outskirts of Ushuaia, Argentina, a birdwatching spot popular with tourists – and overrun with scavenging rodents.