Sawt Falasteen - Latest evacuee from hantavirus-hit cruise lands in Europe

The fate of the MV Hondius has sparked international alarm after three people travelling on the ship died, though health officials have played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the virus, which is less contagious than Covid.

People thought to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.

An air steward from the Dutch KLM carrier is being tested for the virus after possibly having come in contact with an infected person on a flight, it said.

Hantavirus is a rare respiratory disease that is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers. There are no vaccines and no known cure, meaning that treatment consists solely of attempting to relieve the symptoms.

The version detected aboard the stricken Hondius ship was a rare strain known as the Andes virus, which can be transmitted between humans.

It is thought that a passenger had contracted the virus -- which has a one- to six-week incubation period -- before boarding the ship in Argentina and eventually infected others abord the vessel as it sailed across the Atlantic.

On Thursday, a plane carrying a sick passenger landed in Amsterdam, a day after three evacuees were whisked away from the ship, the vessel's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement.

"No symptomatic individuals are present on board" the ship at the moment, as it sails toward Spain's Tenerife Island, it said in a statement.

Two people who returned to the UK from the ship have been advised to self-isolate, the UK Health Security Agency said, adding they were asymptomatic and insisting the risk to the public was "very low".

- Global risk 'low' -

The World Health Organization has played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the virus, with chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus telling AFP on Wednesday that "the risk to the rest of the world is low."

Tedros was due to hold a press conference later on Thursday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) echoed the sentiment, saying: "At this time, the risk to the American public is extremely low."

Meanwhile officials in Argentina said they planned to test rodents in the coastal city of Ushuaia, from where the ship had set sail on April 1.

- First case -

A Dutch man who had boarded in Ushuaia along with his wife died aboard the ship on April 11, without raising alarm.

The ship's captain announced the death to passengers as "due to natural causes," said Ruhi Cenet, a 35-year-old Turkish travel vlogger who was aboard the ship.

The man's body was taken off the ship on April 24 in Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic where 29 other passengers disembarked, the ship's operator said.

"These guests have all been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions. We are working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops of Hondius since March 20," it said.

Alarm was raised when the deceased man's wife -- who left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa -- died there 15 days later after also falling ill, with hantavirus confirmed as the cause on May 4.

The couple had visited Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before the cruise, Argentine officials said.

The Dutch woman had flown on a commercial plane from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg while she was showing symptoms.

Officials were trying to trace people on that flight, which South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew.

Dutch airline KLM said on Thursday that one of its air stewards was undergoing testing for the hantavirus after showing mild symptoms.

There remain discrepancies with the reported number of people aboard the ship.

When the ship anchored off Cape Verde there were 149 people onboard, including 88 passengers, according to the operator. But when the cruise set off from Argentina on April 1 there were 114 guests with dozens of crew, the operator said Thursday.

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Y.AlMasri--SF-PST