Australian passengers caught in the middle of a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship will be flown to Perth, where they will spend at least three weeks in quarantine at a remote facility. The outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius, a luxury cruise ship, has claimed three lives and left a fourth person fighting for survival. Nine individuals have been infected, including a French woman who tested positive for the virus on Monday.
Evacuation details
Five Australians and one New Zealander will be among the last to be evacuated from the ship. The group, consisting of three people from New South Wales, two from Queensland, and the New Zealander, is scheduled to be medically evacuated from the Canary Islands, south of Spain, at 5 p.m. local time. They will be picked up by an Australian government-supported charter flight and flown more than 25 hours to Perth. A team of doctors will be on board to monitor their symptoms.
The six passengers are expected to land at Perth's RAAF Base Pearce before being transferred to the purpose-built Bullsbrook facility for quarantine. The Bullsbrook facility, constructed in 2022 as a COVID-19 quarantine centre, has remained unused for several years.
Government response
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler stated that the Commonwealth would take over quarantine arrangements from the passengers' home states. He said, "The Commonwealth has consulted with Western Australia, which was always going to be the first port of entry by this repatriation flight, and also with NSW and Queensland directly given that the Australians are all residents of those two states." Butler described it as a complex operation involving multiple countries and promised further updates once flights are finalised.
An order will be issued for the passengers to undergo quarantine at the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience, located northeast of Perth next to RAAF Base Pearce. While the quarantine period is set for three weeks, Butler acknowledged that this is shorter than the virus's 42-day incubation period, and further quarantine may be considered based on advice from chief health officers.
Biocontainment centre options
Before Butler's announcement, the NSW Biocontainment Centre at Westmead Hospital in Sydney was considered as a potential location for the passengers. This centre, the first of its kind in Australia, was built in 2023 to safely contain and treat patients with highly infectious diseases such as Ebola and MERS. It features six specialised quarantine beds with negative pressure, a dedicated elevator for moving contagious patients, and its own sewage treatment plant. Medical staff require 30 minutes to put on and remove personal protective equipment, involving over 40 steps.
Understanding hantavirus
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe and often deadly disease in humans. Infection typically occurs through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings, or saliva. The Andes virus, found in South America and the strain detected on the MV Hondius, can have limited human-to-human transmission, according to the World Health Organisation. This type can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness with a case fatality rate of up to 50 percent.
Initial symptoms may resemble flu-like illness but can rapidly progress to severe respiratory failure and cardiac shock. Symptoms, which can appear one to six weeks after exposure, include fever, dizziness, muscle aches, fatigue, headache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. Later stages may involve shortness of breath, coughing, low blood pressure, and kidney failure.
WHO medical epidemiologist Boris Pavlin noted that if the virus were readily transmissible through casual contact, a pandemic would have already occurred. Of the nearly 150 people on board, 94 have been evacuated on eight planes.
Other passengers' fate
After the MV Hondius docked in Tenerife on Sunday, passengers were grouped by nationality and ferried in small boats to the island, then taken to the airport. One of the 17 American passengers reportedly tested positive for hantavirus but is asymptomatic. A French national developed symptoms on a chartered flight from Tenerife to Paris and was immediately placed in strict isolation. Fourteen Spanish nationals were disinfected on arrival in Madrid and face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital. A plane carrying 26 passengers, including crew, landed in the Netherlands. Final evacuation flights for remaining passengers are scheduled to depart on Monday local time.
