{"id":455373,"date":"2026-05-18T19:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/455373\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T19:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:31:11","slug":"hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-docks-at-rotterdam-port-for-disinfection-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/455373\/","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus-hit cruise ship docks at Rotterdam port for disinfection \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A luxury liner at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus<\/a> docked at the Dutch<\/a> port of Rotterdam on Monday, where authorities were disembarking the remaining 25 crew members \u200band two medical staff and planned to cremate a German woman who died.<\/p>\n

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise was to be disinfected.<\/p>\n

It had been carrying about 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organisation<\/a> (WHO) on May 2nd.<\/p>\n

Three people have died. The \u200bbodies of a Dutch couple have been repatriated, while a German victim was to be cremated in the Netherlands with her ashes then sent home.<\/p>\n

Including the three deaths, \u2060there have been eight confirmed and two probable cases on board, according to WHO.<\/p>\n

Hantavirus is primarily spread by rodents but \u200ccan \u200cbe transmitted \u200bbetween people in rare cases and after prolonged, close contact. Incubation can last about six weeks. There is no specific treatment for infection.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe MV Hondius arrives at the port of Rotterdam. Photograph: Nicolas Tucat\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said that \u2060none of the people coming off the boat were \u200bshowing symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon arrival in Rotterdam, these people disembark in a phased \u200band controlled manner,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The MV Hondius arrived at Landtong, a narrow peninsula about 10km long that is part of Rotterdam port \u200cand far from any urban centre. Several white trailers \u200bwere set up in an area near where disembarkation was taking place. Both areas were fenced off.<\/p>\n

The WHO insists the \u2060wider threat to public health remains low and there is \u2060no comparison with the \u200b Covid epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no risk for Rotterdam and no risk in that sense,\u201d said Tjalling Leenstra, head of the Dutch co-ordination centre for communicable disease control at RIVM.<\/p>\n

All those exposed are under monitoring and quarantine, he added.<\/p>\n

The vessel, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, had been stranded off Cape Verde, its intended final destination, earlier this month after authorities barred remaining passengers from going ashore.<\/p>\n

The WHO and European Union asked Spain to manage the evacuation at the Canary Islands, after which the ship departed for Rotterdam with a skeleton crew of 25 people and two additional medical staff.<\/p>\n

Two Dutch crew members were going home for \u200cquarantine, with other mainly Filipino staff to \u2060quarantine in mobile home units in the Rotterdam area, said Yvonne van Duijnhoven, director of the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond municipal health service.<\/p>\n

Cleaning of the vessel by a specialised company could take up to a week, RIVM said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wear protective \u200cclothing and clean all surfaces in the ship, including the ventilation systems, and each room is assessed individually,\u201d said RIVM spokesperson Coen Berends, noting that cabins of people who \u200btested positive would be considered high-risk areas.<\/p>\n

The outbreak involves the so-called Andes virus, a strain which has \u200bcirculated in Argentina and Chile for decades.<\/p>\n

Other crew, passengers and people in contact with them have also been quarantined in several other countries. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018This makes us jump\u2019: How a nature cruise turned into a hantavirus nightmareOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A luxury liner at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[160,5148,188479,103,61,60,5151,2846,31614],"class_list":["post-455373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-covid-19","tag-european-union","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-netherlands","tag-spain","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455373","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=455373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}