Forty Days of Maritime Ordeal Ended, but Countries on Alert After Additional Hantavirus Cases Among Returning Passengers

\r\n[The Financial News] Countries have begun quarantine and other disease-control measures after additional cases were confirmed among passengers who disembarked from a cruise ship that experienced a hantavirus outbreak during its Atlantic voyage and returned home.
According to AFP and AP, six final passengers disembarked on the 11th local time from MV Hondius, which was anchored off Tenerife in the Canary Islands, including four Australians, one British resident of Australia, and one New Zealander. As the passengers finished disembarking, the ship, carrying the remaining 26 crew members, departed for Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was 40 days after its first departure from Argentina on the 1st of last month.
Meanwhile, according to French Minister of Health Stephanie Rist, a French passenger who returned to France the previous day developed symptoms on the plane, and the condition worsened overnight. U.S. health authorities also said that one American passenger tested positive while traveling to Nebraska with other passengers, but had no symptoms.
The Ministry of Health (Spain) said that PCR tests on 14 Spanish nationals under quarantine found one positive case. That passenger had no symptoms, while the other 13 tested negative. The ministry added that further testing was under way.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), told CNN, "Because the incubation period for hantavirus is six to eight weeks, we expect more cases to emerge, but we hope the number will be as small as possible."
\r\n\r\nAs cruise ship passengers continue to return home, countries are enforcing self-isolation and other preventive measures.
A chartered British flight carrying 22 passengers took off from Tenerife and landed in Manchester on the evening of the 10th. Twenty British nationals, one German resident of the UK, and one Japanese passenger requested by the Japanese government were isolated at a hospital in Merseyside near Manchester. British health authorities said they would assess for 72 hours whether the passengers could self-isolate at home or another location, and if so, they would be sent home by a means other than public transportation and required to self-isolate for a total of 45 days.
In France, where one infection was confirmed during the return process, the other four passengers who tested negative were also isolated at a hospital in Paris. The French government plans to impose home isolation and other measures on them for a total of 42 days, or six weeks, taking into account the incubation period from infection to symptom onset. Violations of the measure could result in a fine of up to 1,500 euros, or about 2.59 million won.
Spanish passengers are being tested while isolated at a military hospital in Madrid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also said that 15 U.S. passengers, excluding one confirmed case and one symptomatic patient, are isolated at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
whywani@fnnews.com Hong Chaewan Reporter