Last passengers from hantavirus-hit ship evacuated; American tests positive

The last two evacuation planes carrying passengers and crew from the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak have landed in the Netherlands, as a repatriated US passenger tested positive for the respiratory infection. The two planes carried 28 evacuees from the MV Hondius, which had been docked in the Canary Islands , including six passengers and 19 crew members, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Recommended Stories list of 3 items end of list The passengers – four from Australia, one from New Zealand, and one British resident of Australia – are expected to stay in a quarantine facility near the Eindhoven airbase before they are repatriated. Their arrival caps a complex operation in which 94 people have been evacuated and repatriated to some 20 countries to enter a period of quarantine. It comes 41 days after the MV Hondius set off from southern Argentina and nine days after the first positive test result for the respiratory viral infection. Three people – a Dutch ‌couple and a German national – have died since the outbreak of the hantavirus on the ship. The strain involved, known as the Andes virus, is typically spread by rodents and is the only variant of hantavirus capable of limited person-to-person transmission. …