New Biocontainment Facility Awaits Australians from Hantavirus-Struck Cruise: What You Need to Know

Passengers are now beginning to leave a cruise ship affected by hantavirus in Spain’s Canary Islands. Among those still on board, a group of Australians will be among the final ones to head back home.

A total of four Australian citizens, along with one permanent resident and a New Zealand national, are slated to leave Tenerife on a charter flight organized with the help of the Australian government. This flight is scheduled for departure at approximately 3 a.m. AEST on Tuesday.

The flight, bound for Perth, will include medical professionals, and passengers coming from New South Wales and Queensland will be quarantined in medical facilities upon landing. State governments are currently ironing out the specifics of these quarantine protocols.

Fortunately, none of the passengers being repatriated are showing any symptoms of hantavirus. Tragically, the outbreak on the MV Hondius has resulted in the deaths of three passengers, while five others, who were evacuated earlier, have become ill.

New South Wales Health has assured that it will “receive, safely transport, and provide appropriate care” for its returning residents once they touch down in Sydney.

“The passengers will be immediately transported by ambulance to the NSW Biocontainment Centre at Westmead Hospital to undergo clinical assessment and to assess suitable quarantine arrangements,” a spokesperson said.

Opened in 2023, the facility is Australia’s first purpose-built biocontainment centre designed to “treat and safely isolate patients with rare highly infectious diseases”.

Speaking on ABC Breakfast on Monday morning, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government wanted to ensure the group received the care they needed.

“It’s obviously a terrible situation that these people are in, going on a cruise expecting to have a nice holiday and finding themselves in this situation,” he said.

A federal government spokesperson said Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials in Tenerife and Canberra were helping coordinate the response effort.

“The Australian government’s number one priority is the safety of passengers and the Australian community,” a spokesperson said.

The Australians will be the final group of passengers to leave the ship. Passengers cannot disembark until their plane arrives, and Australia’s flight is scheduled to land last.

Other passengers began disembarking on Sunday morning local time, with several countries having sent planes to repatriate their citizens.

Passengers and port workers at Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation, including hazmat suits, face masks and respirators.

Spanish citizens were the first to leave the ship before being flown to Madrid and transferred to a military hospital.

Nearly 150 people were on board when the ship — which was on an Antarctic voyage from South America — arrived in the Spanish territory off the coast of north-west Africa, with all passengers and some crew set to be evacuated.

But 30 crew members, along with luggage and the body of a deceased passenger, will remain onboard before the ship travels to the Netherlands for disinfection.

Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings, and the disease is not 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 exposure.

There is no specific treatment or cure for hantavirus infections, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

Quarantine measures managed by countries

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that passengers’ home countries conduct “active monitoring and follow-up”, including daily health checks either at home or in specialised facilities.

“We are leaving this up to the countries themselves to actually develop their own policies,” WHO director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness Maria Van Kerkhove said.

“But our recommendations are very clear, and this is really a cautionary approach to make sure that we don’t have any opportunities for this virus to pass from others.”

Several countries have said their citizen would be quarantined or hospitalised for observation.

The French foreign ministry said its passengers would be hospitalised for 72 hours of monitoring, then would quarantine at home for 45 days.

Earlier, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reassured Canary Islands residents that they should not be alarmed by the outbreak.

“We have been repeating the same answer many times,” he said.

“This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”

“Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home.

“Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety.”

British medics parachute into remote territory

On Saturday, British Army medics parachuted onto the remote South Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

The UK defence ministry said a team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped from a Royal Air Force transport plane, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment.

Tristan da Cunha is Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, about 2,400km from the nearest inhabited island, St Helena. The group of volcanic islands has no airstrip and is usually accessible only by a six-day boat voyage from Cape Town, South Africa.

— With additional reporting by the Associated Press.

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