{"id":947869,"date":"2026-05-09T07:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947869\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:58:15","slug":"spains-canary-islands-brace-for-incoming-hantavirus-stricken-cruise-ship-health-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947869\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s Canary Islands brace for incoming hantavirus-stricken cruise ship | Health News"},"content":{"rendered":"

140 passengers and crew on the MV Hondius vessel will be \u2018completely isolated\u2019 and evacuated, say Spanish authorities.<\/p>\n

Published On 9 May 20269 May 2026<\/p>\n

A cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak is en route to Spain\u2019s Canary Islands, where it plans to drop off 140 passengers and crew so they can be evacuated after weeks stranded at sea.<\/p>\n

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius vessel, on which at least eight people fell ill, is due to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife<\/a>, off the coast of West Africa, early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Passengers will be taken to a \u201ccompletely isolated, cordoned-off area\u201d, said the head of Spain\u2019s emergency services, Virginia Barcones. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be on the island to help coordinate their evacuation, according to Spanish ministry sources cited by AFP.<\/p>\n

While three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected<\/a> with hantavirus, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Friday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship.<\/p>\n

The WHO considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a new COVID,\u201d said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. \u201cThe virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and 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.<\/p>\n

Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was first detected on May 2. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cannot become Europe\u2019s health laboratory\u2019<\/p>\n

Some Spanish residents expressed concern that the passengers\u2019 arrival would create a health risk on the island and that not enough measures were in place to contain it.<\/p>\n

Iustitia Europa, an anti-establishment Spanish group that rose to prominence by challenging COVID-era restrictions, called for the MV Hondius to be barred from reaching Spanish shores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canary Islands cannot become Europe\u2019s health laboratory \u2026 We demand transparency, responsibility, and protection for Spaniards to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,\u201d the group posted on X.<\/p>\n

Alicia Rodriguez, a bar owner on Tenerife, said the incoming vessel \u201chas been the talk of the town\u201d for days. \u201cI think to a certain extent we have to be concerned, but hopefully they\u2019ll try to handle things in the least dangerous way possible,\u201d she told Al Jazeera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several Spanish passengers told The Associated Press news agency they worry they will be ostracised once on land. \u201cWe\u2019re scared by all the news that\u2019s coming out, by how people are going to receive us,\u201d said one of the passengers, who declined to give their name.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see what\u2019s out there and you realise you\u2019re heading into the eye of a hurricane,\u201d said another passenger, who also requested anonymity. \u201cMany people forget that in here there are more than 140 passengers. In reality, there are 140 human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them, Spanish officials said. They will then be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, officials added, with the parts of the airport they travel through being cordoned off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"140 passengers and crew on the MV Hondius vessel will be \u2018completely isolated\u2019 and evacuated, say Spanish authorities.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,105,12,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-947869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116543560438047503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}