Consular representatives of Australia will be traveling to Spain’s Canary Islands to help facilitate the repatriation process of four Australian nationals and one Australian permanent resident who are stranded onboard a cruise ship where an outbreak of hantavirus infection occurred.
The Dutch owned exploration ship MV Hondius is expected to land in Tenerife around noon on Sunday local time after spending some time at sea since the infection was found aboard.
The ship currently holds around 150 passengers and crew members, all hailing from more than two dozen countries.
As many as three deaths have been associated with the outbreak, including that of a Dutch couple and one German national, while there have been additional cases of infection, among which is a British doctor who has caught the Andes strain of hantavirus.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade statement: “We are looking at our options for their repatriation and ensuring it is done safely. Our first priority is safety.”
No passengers will be allowed to stay in Spain or get on commercial flights when the ship arrives .
Each country will have to pick up its own nationals.
Spanish authorities said disembarkation will take place in a cordoned off part of the port, with travellers transferred by small boats to guarded buses and the airport, where they will be ferried to chartered flights through cordoned off sections of the airport.
The Australian Centre for Disease Control is understood to be working with state and territory health agencies on quarantine arrangements, testing protocols and ongoing monitoring when the group arrives.
Also Read: Australia’s first children cancer centre opens its doors in Sydney
Officials in Spain are now requiring negative tests before any repatriation flights can leave.
Wider tracing effort underway
This incident has led to an international tracing effort involving four different continents.
More than 20 passengers have since departed the ship at previous docking sites, such as St Helena, after the discovery of the virus on board on 2 May.
There is a case where one of the passengers on the cruise who left at St Helena returned to Australia already, and according to DFAT, no Australians have been found among the affected passengers.
According to reports by investigators, the disease could have originated from a pair of Dutch individuals who were watching birds in the vicinity of a landfill site in Ushuaia, Argentina, prior to boarding the ship in March.
The virus has an incubation period of up to eight weeks, with a mortality rate of 40%.
