VIDEO: WHO response to the hantavirus outbreak
The World Health Organization and partners have safely disembarked and repatriated passengers and crew from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship
The MV Hondius cruise ship arrived off Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, where the passengers and some of the crew began disembarking on Sunday 10 May.
As the world looks on, experts from across the international health sector are working to trace contacts, manage the risk of infection, and mitigate the risk of a further spread of the virus. In an increasingly globalised world where people are travelling faster and farther than ever before, the hantavirus outbreak serves as a reminder of how quickly diseases can spread – even when it is "contained" on board a cruise ship in a very remote part of the world.
World Health Organization (WHO) experts on the ground have been working with the Spanish Health Ministry on the epidemiological assessment of the passengers and coordinating charter flights with the Interior Ministry. This operation continues on Monday 11 May till evening, sundown. Then around 30 crewmembers are expected to remain on board as the vessel returns to the Netherlands accompanied by a medical team.
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Mandy Langfield
Mandy Langfield is Publishing Director for Voyageur Group. She has written extensively on the topic of international travel and health insurance, as well as medical assistance provision and air medical transportation. Mandy is also on the committee for the International Travel & Health Insurance Conferences (ITIC).