The expedition vessel MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak during an Atlantic voyage, arrived off the port of Granadilla on Tenerife early Sunday morning as Spanish and international health authorities prepared a coordinated medical screening and repatriation operation for passengers and crew.
According to health officials, 6 passengers aboard the vessel have been confirmed as infected with hantavirus, while 2 further cases remain under investigation. Three fatalities linked to the outbreak have been recorded during the voyage, including two deaths that occurred while the ship remained at sea.
The vessel reached waters off Tenerife at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time and remained anchored offshore rather than entering port directly. Authorities established procedures for transferring passengers ashore in small groups by launch craft before medical screening and onward transport to waiting repatriation flights.
Approximately 150 people remained aboard, including passengers and crew representing more than twenty nationalities. Among them were 38 Filipino crew members, 23 passengers from the United Kingdom, 17 from the United States, 14 from Spain and 11 from the Netherlands, alongside travellers from several other European, North American and Asia-Pacific nations.
Spanish health authorities stated that all passengers were currently asymptomatic at the time of arrival, though each individual would undergo medical assessment and epidemiological screening before being cleared for travel. Spanish nationals were expected to be among the first transferred ashore, with some scheduled for precautionary quarantine at a military medical facility in Madrid.
American passengers were expected to return to the United States under monitoring arrangements coordinated with federal health agencies. Reuters and other international media reported that some travellers would undergo observation at specialised quarantine facilities following arrival.
During the outbreak, passengers aboard the vessel reportedly assisted one another as the onboard medical situation intensified. American oncologist Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, travelling as a passenger, assumed a supporting medical role after the ship’s doctor became ill. In interviews given after the ship’s arrival, he described the outbreak as a rapidly evolving medical emergency in which several patients deteriorated over a short period.
Health authorities confirmed that infected individuals linked to the voyage had already received treatment in several countries, including South Africa, Switzerland and the Netherlands, after earlier evacuations during the cruise.
The outbreak has been identified as involving the Andes strain of hantavirus, regarded by epidemiologists as the only known hantavirus variant capable of limited human-to-human transmission through prolonged close contact. The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control nevertheless continued to emphasize that the broader public health risk remained low.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified the incident as a Level 3 emergency response, its lowest operational activation level, while health agencies in several countries initiated tracing and monitoring programmes for travellers who had previously disembarked during earlier stages of the voyage.