Planes will evacuate citizens from multiple countries aboard the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, where six cases have been confirmed.
World Health Organization briefing on May 9, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove , WHO's acting director of epidemic and pandemic management, explained the plan for the next 24 to 48 hours.
After the boat docks, she explained, there will be a small boat that will bring the passengers in groups to the dock for medical screening.
"If there's anybody that develops symptoms, anybody that has symptoms, they will immediately go to a medical evacuation plane and be taken to the Netherlands for care," Van Kerkhove said. "For those who are healthy, those who are doing well, they will go to individual planes that are being organized by countries. Those planes will take those individuals back to home countries.
"Spain's interior minister said on Saturday that planes will come from Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands as well as two from the European Union for any remaining European citizens. The U.S. is arranging a repatriation flight for the Americans on board the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, the State Department announced.
The U.S. and U.K. have confirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were unable to send air transport, he said. Residents of multiple countries, including the United States, are being monitored after disembarking from the Hondius. Three people have died in connection with the outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.S. health officials are "actively monitoring and responding to a hantavirus outbreak" linked to the cruise ship.
"At this time, the risk to the American public remains extremely low," the agency said. "I will join senior government officials in a mission to Tenerife to oversee safe disembarkation of the passengers, crew members and health experts from MV Hondius cruise ship," he wrote.
"Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski andcolleague on board Dr Freddy Banza-Mutoka, who told me that, at this stage, there are no additional people on board showing symptoms ofto its Health Alert Network, or HAN, on May 8 − a step that infectious disease experts said should have been taken earlier − to "inform clinicians and health departments about a new cluster of hantavirus disease cases caused by infection with Andes virus. " "Clinicians should be aware of the potential for imported cases, although the risk of broad spread to the United States is considered extremely unlikely at this time," the alert added.
"As a precaution, this Health Advisory summarizes CDC’s recommendations for U.S. public health departments, clinical laboratories, and healthcare workers about hantavirus disease case identification, testing, and biosafety considerations in clinical laboratories. "on May 7, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the Infectious Diseases Society of America's chief executive officer said HAN is defined as the CDC's "primary method of sharing clear information about urgent public health incidents.
""The last HAN on that page is from April 2, 2026, so this to me, not overstating. It is a travesty in terms of NIH response," she said.
“A lot of the things that you would like to see, we haven't seen, and to me, that's very concerning," Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine, said in the briefing. "The silence that we're seeing from our premier public health institution is really concerning to me. "
Maria Van Kerkhove Cruise Ship Tenerife Hondius Hantavirus Disease Deadly Hantavirus Van Kerkhove European Citizens Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
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