{"id":439992,"date":"2026-05-09T07:38:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439992\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:38:06","slug":"what-happens-to-the-irish-passengers-after-hantavirus-ship-docks-at-canary-islands-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439992\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to the Irish passengers after hantavirus ship docks at Canary Islands? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the MV Hondius prepares to dock at the Canary Islands on Sunday, countries are preparing to repatriate passengers in a way that mitigates any risk of the disease spreading further. <\/p>\n

Three people have died in the outbreak, while eight are suspected to have contracted hantavirus<\/a>, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s minister for health, Monica Garcia, said once in Tenerife, all non-Spanish citizens who are still healthy will be repatriated to their countries, while the 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid. Those still on \u200cboard were not presenting any symptoms of the disease, she added. <\/p>\n

But what happens once these Irish citizens are repatriated? Many aspects are still being decided, health officials have said.<\/p>\n

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a> said the State is still in the \u201cgathering information\u201d stage, but is working closely with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the ship gets to Tenerife, patients, passengers will be assessed as to what is their medical status … Are they symptomatic? Do they have any issues? And it is only then the decisions will be made about where they would be transferred and what quarantine period would be necessary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Gerald Barry, deputy director of the UCD One Health Centre, said incubation for these viruses can last from a week to a couple of months, and this will have to be kept in mind after their arrival home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo all passengers and staff on the boats will need to be tested for infection, symptoms alone cannot be relied upon for presence of the virus and once confirmed uninfected, they should be allowed to disembark, with close follow-up monitoring for two to three months by local public health officials,\u201d he said. \u201cThose that are infected should be monitored and treated appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there is caution and planning, there is little sense of panic. There are several reasons why experts \u2013 national and international \u2013 are assured that this is vastly different from the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland \u2018well prepared\u2019 for any hantavirus cases, says infectious disease specialistOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s important to remember that in the early days of 2020, Covid-19 was a complete unknown. Health officials knew very little about what it was or how it behaved. Hantavirus is different. Experts know exactly what is required to stem further spread.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, while human-to-human transmission can happen with this variant of the virus, it is not common. Maria van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the WHO, said \u201cvery close contact\u201d is required for it to spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s sharing a bunk room or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example, [that is] very, very different to Covid very different to influenza,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the MV Hondius prepares to dock at the Canary Islands on Sunday, countries are preparing to repatriate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,189049],"class_list":["post-439992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mv-hondius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}