The expedition vessel MV Hondius, linked to a hantavirus outbreak that has been associated with three deaths, arrived at the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife on Sunday as an international operation began to disembark and repatriate passengers under World Health Organization (WHO) supervision.
The ship anchored at sunrise and was met by small boats, medical teams and port officials. Personnel in hazmat suits were visible on the dock while WHO staff and national health authorities coordinated a controlled evacuation. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed the ship’s arrival on social media and said the agency was coordinating next steps to ensure safe disembarkment.
Spanish health teams boarded the vessel shortly before 8 a.m. local time to carry out health checks on passengers and crew before evacuation began. According to the tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions, passengers are being transferred ashore in small boats carrying no more than 10 people at a time, and disembarkation is being organized by nationality to match repatriation flight schedules.
Several countries — including the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands — have arranged aircraft to evacuate their nationals. U.S. health officials said 17 American passengers, all asymptomatic, will be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for evaluation and then monitored at home for 42 days. Spanish authorities said the first group to leave the ship will be 14 Spanish passengers; they will wear FFP2 masks during transport to a military hospital, where they will remain isolated in individual rooms and undergo PCR testing.
The outbreak on the MV Hondius, which departed Argentina last month, has been linked to hantavirus, a rare illness typically transmitted when people inhale dust contaminated with infected rodents’ urine or feces. As of May 8, eight cases had been reported, including three deaths, with six laboratory-confirmed infections identified as Andes virus (ANDV), the WHO said. The case fatality ratio among those reported was about 38 percent.
A cluster of passengers with severe respiratory illness was first reported to WHO on May 2. At that time, the ship operator said 147 passengers and crew were on board and 34 had already disembarked. Since an earlier WHO update on May 4, additional suspected cases were confirmed.
Local and regional reactions in the Canary Islands included concern over allowing the vessel to dock: regional leader Fernando Clavijo had opposed permitting the ship to berth, and some Tenerife port workers staged protests, citing what they described as inadequate communication about potential health risks.
Once passenger evacuation is complete, the MV Hondius is scheduled to continue to Rotterdam, where crew will disembark and the vessel will undergo disinfection procedures.
Indian health authorities sought to calm public concern about the outbreak after reports that two Indian crew members were aboard. Dr. Naveen Kumar, director of India’s ICMR–National Institute of Virology in Pune, said the infections among Indian nationals appear to be isolated, imported cases and do not indicate community transmission in India. He noted that hantavirus is primarily rodent-borne and that human-to-human spread is extremely uncommon, so immediate public health risk for India remains low.
Health agencies and participating countries continue to coordinate the safe transfer, testing and monitoring of passengers and crew while public health teams investigate and manage the vessel to limit further spread.
