Passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship board a EuroAtlantic Airways aircraft bound for Canada. The Canadians will isolate for 21 days after returning from the ship where a hantavirus outbreak sickened several people and killed three.Borja Suarez/Reuters
Four Canadian passengers from the cruise ship stricken by a hantavirus outbreak returned to Canada on a chartered plane after departing the Canary Islands on Sunday.
They landed at Bagotville, Que., on Sunday afternoon where they planned to transfer to a second flight destined for British Columbia.
Public health officials in B.C. said they would assess the four passengers on arrival. They planned to take the passengers to lodgings where they will self-isolate for a minimum of 21 days. After that, the passengers will be reassessed and a decision will be made about whether to continue to isolate up to a maximum of 42 days.
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B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said the four people were asymptomatic Sunday morning in Spain.
“Upon arrival, they will be screened and assessed by local public health officials and transported directly to safe, pre-arranged lodgings, where they will begin an initial 21-day self-isolation period under daily monitoring by public health teams,” Dr. Henry said.
“At no point during their arrival or isolation period will they be in contact with the public. They will be monitored daily by local public health teams to ensure that they remain well and are safely isolating. It has been a very challenging time for these four Canadians and public health teams are committed to supporting them through this process.”
Passengers and crew started disembarking from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak on Sunday. The process is being overseen by global health officials and expected to last until Monday.
Reuters
The passengers were among dozens of foreign tourists who had spent the last several weeks aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius after an outbreak of a deadly hantavirus strain that has killed three and left eight others seriously ill.
The passengers were on an ecotourism cruise. It’s believed the first patient to fall ill and later die came in contact with the Andes strain of the virus while still on land, possibly at a site in Argentina popular with birdwatchers. The virus, which is often spread by rodent urine or feces, in this case appears to have also spread by human contact on the ship, which has raised fears that more passengers or crew could eventually fall ill. The virus has an incubation period of up to two months.
Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a WHO tally from Friday. Three have died – a Dutch couple and a German national.
Four remain hospitalized in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland. On the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory, a suspected case is being treated by a team of medical specialists parachuted in by the British military.
Passengers from countries including the Netherlands, Turkey, the U.K., Ireland, and the United States also disembarked and were flown home on Sunday.
The passengers headed to B.C. are described are being accompanied by a Public Health Agency of Canada quarantine officer, the government said.