90-Second Read: WHO head seeks to reassure Tenerife residents ahead of arrival of Hantavirus cruise ship

The head of the World Health Organization is seeking to reassure residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife worried about the anticipated arrival there of a Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship. Spanish authorities were on Saturday preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, where health officials have said they will perform careful evacuations. Passengers on the the Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. Argentina's tourism-dependent province — Tierra del Fuego, home to the southernmost city of Ushuaia — on Friday rejected the idea that the deadly Hantavirus outbreak aboard an Atlantic cruise ship may have emerged from its territory. Caivano) An.

But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with Hantavirus. Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have Hantavirus. I know that when you hear the word 'outbreak' and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.

The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment," Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed Hantavirus in a passenger. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for Hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.

On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. But we also need to have empathy." Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife "under maximum safety conditions." The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services. On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the.