A deadly virus has been detected on a cruise ship with Ukrainian crew members; the ship is being barred from the Canary Islands.

Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands, an autonomous region within Spain, said he does not support the Spanish authorities' decision to accept a cruise ship that had an outbreak of the rare and deadly hantavirus, reports Air force.

The day before, the Spanish Ministry of Health announced its readiness to accept the ship on the islands, but the Canary Islands authorities objected.

Approximately 150 people from 23 countries remain on board the MV Hondius under quarantine, which includes isolation and strict sanitary measures, according to the cruise organizer, Oceanwide Expeditions. Among them are five Ukrainian crew members. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are healthy.

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The MV Hondius set out about a month ago from the south of Argentina and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

"I cannot allow this ship to arrive in the Canary Islands. This decision is not based on technical criteria, and we have been given insufficient information," Clavijo said on COPE radio.

According to Reuters, he intends to urgently discuss the situation in Madrid with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

The Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius is currently off Cape Verde (formerly Cape Verde) and could reach the Canary Islands in three to four days.

In another interview, Clavijo noted that he sees no point in transporting passengers by sea to the Canary Islands.

"If passengers are safe and healthy, there's no need to travel to the Canary Islands for repatriation—this can be arranged through Cape Verde International Airport," he noted. "In the public interest, it makes more sense to begin this process now."

Three people died on the MV Hondius as a result of the outbreak: a married couple from the Netherlands and a German citizen.

However, the presence of hantavirus has only been officially confirmed in a woman from the Netherlands.

On the morning of May 6, three people were evacuated from the ship. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs later clarified that they were a 56-year-old British citizen, a 41-year-old Dutch citizen, and a 65-year-old German citizen.

The situation with the sick

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on the X network that the evacuees would be transported to the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified that two planes would transport them to European clinics with specialists in such infections.

In addition, a 69-year-old British man who was previously evacuated from a plane in South Africa was diagnosed with hantavirus.

On May 6, Swiss authorities reported that the virus had been detected in a Swiss citizen who was also on board.

The Swiss Ministry of Health clarified that the man, who returned from a cruise on the MV Hondius at the end of April, first consulted a general practitioner and was then referred to the University Hospital in Zurich.

There he was urgently isolated, and tests confirmed the Andean variant of hantavirus.

Human-to-human transmission

South Africa's Ministry of Health has reported two more cases of infection with a strain of hantavirus that can be transmitted from person to person, but only through very close contact.

The World Health Organization noted that this route of transmission is rare. The WHO estimates that the risk of infection for the approximately 150 passengers on board remains low.

Hantavirus is usually transmitted to humans from rodents through their feces, saliva, or urine.

It can cause severe respiratory illness. Human-to-human transmission is extremely rare.

However, Cape Verdean authorities prohibited passengers from disembarking.

How did the virus get on the ship?

As Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of the WHO's Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness, told the BBC on May 5, the priority remains the treatment of the two crew members on board with respiratory symptoms.

As of Tuesday, May 5, they were scheduled to be evacuated by medical flight to the Netherlands along with a person who had close contact with the deceased German citizen, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.

The remaining passengers did not show symptoms.

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Van Kerkhove stressed on the BBC that the infection could have occurred from person to person – between people who were in close contact and lived in the same cabin.

She added that the virus could have initially entered the ship through rodents, either before leaving Ushuaia in Argentina or during one of the stops along the route.

According to her, the cruise route passed through many islands, some of which are inhabited by rodents.

"Our working hypothesis is that there were likely multiple routes of transmission," van Kerkhove concluded.

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