Sawt Falasteen - Hantavirus-hit cruise ship steams towards Rotterdam at voyage end

The MV Hondius is expected to dock in the Dutch port between 10:00 am (0800 GMT) and midday (1000 GMT), according to officials, before disembarking the 27 remaining people on board: 25 crew and two medical staff.

AFP reporters on board a separate vessel caught sight of the ship as it steamed towards Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port, for final docking and disinfection.

The ship, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, made headlines after three passengers died from hantavirus -- a rare virus for which no vaccines nor specific treatments exist.

The World Health Organization has scrambled to reassure the world that the outbreak was not a repeat of the Covid pandemic, stressing that contagion was very rare.

"There is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on May 12.

However, the virus has an incubation period of several weeks, meaning more cases from the ship's occupants could emerge in the future, Tedros warned.

Hantavirus has been confirmed in seven patients, with one other probable case, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

The most recent positive test came from Canada in a patient who was onboard the Hondius, officials said late Sunday.

- Hospitalisations -

After arriving in the Canary Islands on May 10, more than 120 passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship, either to their home countries or to the Netherlands, which has a special responsibility as the ship is Dutch-flagged.

A 65-year-old French woman became symptomatic on the repatriation flight and ended up in critical condition in a Paris hospital with a confirmed case of hantavirus.

Two people, one Dutch and one British, were also urgently evacuated from the ship to the Netherlands and rushed to hospital.

Both are in stable condition and the Briton is well enough to return home for self-isolation, according to Dutch officials.

All others evacuated to the Netherlands from the ship have tested negative for the virus. Some are in quarantine in the Netherlands, others have already flown home.

Everyone still on board is asymptomatic, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, and being closely monitored by the two medics on board.

Late on Sunday, the WHO said it was maintaining its assessment of the hantavirus outbreak as "low risk".

"While additional cases may still occur among passengers and crew members exposed before containment measures were implemented, the risk of onward transmission is expected to be reduced following disembarkation and the implementation of control measures," it said.

- Andes strain -

The people disembarking on Monday comprise 17 from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands (two crew and the two medical staff), four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland.

Some of them will stay in quarantine facilities at the port, while others will self-isolate at home.

Also on board is the body of a German woman who died during the voyage.

After docking, the ship will undergo thorough cleaning and disinfection procedures, according to the operator.

The MV Hondius's voyage began on April 1 in Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in some remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before steaming north to Cape Verde.

The trip was supposed to finish there, but the ship eventually sailed to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for the evacuations by plane.

The MV Hondius presented diplomatic challenges as different countries negotiated over who would receive it and treat its passengers.

Cape Verde refused to take the ship, which remained anchored offshore of the capital Praia as three people were evacuated to Europe by air.

Spain allowed the vessel to anchor off its Canary Islands for the evacuation of passengers and crew but the Atlantic archipelago's regional government fiercely opposed the measure.

Hantavirus spreads from the urine, faeces and saliva of infected rodents and is endemic in Argentina, where the voyage began.

Those infected have the Andes virus -- the only strain of hantavirus that can spread between people.

Kiki Hirschfeldt, a spokeswoman for the operator, said it was too early to say what impact the outbreak could have on the appetite for cruises.

"I mean, for as far as we know right now, the virus was brought on board and that can happen in a hotel, in an airplane, in a boat," she told AFP.

W.Mansour--SF-PST