British Troops Deployed To Remote Island Amid Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

LONDON/MADRID/AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – British paratroopers and military medics were deployed to the world’s most remote inhabited island after a suspected hantavirus case linked to a deadly cruise ship outbreak triggered international health concerns.

A team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians from Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha along with oxygen supplies and emergency medical aid, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

The operation marked the first time the British military deployed medical personnel via parachute jump for a humanitarian mission, according to the ministry.

The supplies were mainly intended for a British passenger linked to an outbreak aboard a Dutch-flagged luxury cruise ship where at least three people died after contracting the Andes strain of hantavirus, according to health authorities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the patient on Tristan da Cunha remained stable and in isolation.

REMOTE ISLAND ALERT

Tristan da Cunha, home to about 200 people, lies in the South Atlantic roughly halfway between South America and South Africa and has no airport, making access possible mainly by sea.

Hantaviruses are typically spread through contact with infected rodents or their urine and droppings. The WHO said the Andes strain is the only known hantavirus capable of limited human-to-human transmission, though infections generally require close and prolonged contact.

The virus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory disease that can become life-threatening. Health experts say fatality rates vary depending on the strain and how quickly patients receive treatment, but severe cases have historically carried mortality rates of around 30 to 40 percent.

The cruise ship left for Spain from Cape Verde after European and international health authorities requested the evacuation of passengers.

Passengers were transferred ashore in small boats and transported to Tenerife airport in military buses without contact with the public, officials said.

CRUISE SHIP RESPONSE

Thirty crew members were expected to remain aboard as the vessel sails to the Netherlands for disinfection procedures.

Spanish authorities said a woman tested after sharing a flight with one of the suspected victims was negative for the virus.

“This is not COVID and we don’t want to treat it like COVID,” said Jay Bhattacharya, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America’s main public health agency.

Health officials also pushed back against online claims that they say falsely link hantavirus infections to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer said references to hantavirus in vaccine safety documents reflected reports collected through monitoring systems and did not prove the vaccine caused the illness.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, America’s drug regulator, previously stressed that reports submitted to vaccine monitoring systems do not by themselves establish a causal link between a vaccine and a medical condition.

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