At least one of the 17 American citizens who were passengers on the ill-fated MV Hondius cruise ship, which has suffered a deadly Hantavirus outbreak that has global health authorities on edge, has tested positive for the Andes strain, which has a fatality rate of between 30% and 50%.
The news that one U.S. passenger had tested positive for Hantavirus via a PCR test was revealed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) late on Sunday night, as the plane carrying them back to the United States was well on it way back from Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Along with the one confirmed case, another of 17 passengers was displaying symptoms consistent with Hantavirus infection, and both had been placed in special biocontainment units of the Boeing 747 cargo airplane being used for the airlift.
The aircraft chartered by the U.S. government for this humanitarian mission is a 20-year-old Jumbojet freighter owned by Kalitta Air, which arrived in Tenerife on May 10, just hours after the MV Hondius moored in the Canary Islands for an international repatriation mission.
In a statement, the HHS said that two of the passengers were “travelling in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.”
The statement added: “One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.”
The aircraft is due to arrive at Omaha, Nebraska, at around 3:30 am on Monday, where the passengers will be transferred to a special center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center known as the Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC).
Most of the passengers will stay at this center, but the passengers experiencing symptoms will be transferred to another isolation unit.
Following clinical assessment, some of the passengers are expected to be allowed to self-isolate at home.
