Rare and deadly Hanta virus spread in Dutch cruise ship, more than 100 people on board

Madrid. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday. He came here to oversee the difficult task of evacuating more than 100 people stranded on a Dutch cruise ship. The rare and deadly Hanta virus had spread on this cruise ship. He also addressed the people in the Canary Islands. Dr. Tedros said that the ship will anchor near the coast of its largest island. After what the world experienced during the global coronavirus pandemic in 2020, people are justifiably concerned. Despite this, there is no need to panic, he said. Hanta virus is ‘not Covid’.

According to the CBS News report, Tedros reiterated a letter he had written before arriving here in the Canary Islands. He said, “This disease is not Covid. Its risk to the local population is low.” Tedros said the hantavirus does not have the same nature as the coronavirus, but “that trauma is still in our minds.” He said, “That’s why I came here to stand with the people. I had to change my plans to come here, because this is so important to the whole world and to the people of Tenerife.”

The Dutch-flagged cruise ship is expected to arrive at the island of Teneriffe on Sunday morning, officials said. The organization had said on Friday that suspected cases of Hanta virus were found among eight people aboard the ship and three people have died. According to the owner of this ship, currently none of the 147 people on board the ship, including 60 crew members, are showing any symptoms of the disease.

Tedros estimated that six flights would go to EU countries and four flights would go to non-EU countries to evacuate people. There are 17 American citizens on board this cruise. They will be taken off the ship in a small boat and taken to the plane waiting for them on the runway. The World Health Organization has recommended that disembarked passengers be kept in isolation for 42 days from the time they were last exposed to the virus.

This ship left Argentina on April 1. It stopped at several remote islands in the South Atlantic. These include Tristan da Cunha and St. Helena. Both of these are British territories. The disease spread on the ship appears to have originated with a Dutch couple who had visited South America a few months before the cruise trip.