All Hondius Evacuees in the Netherlands Test Negative for Hantavirus
All 52 Hondius passengers tested on arrival in the Netherlands have tested negative for the hantavirus, the RIVM has said. A mandatory six-week home quarantine continues.
Every Hondius passenger flown back to the Netherlands so far has tested negative for the hantavirus, public health institute RIVM announced on Thursday. The latest 26 people, who arrived overnight from Monday into Tuesday at the military airport in Eindhoven, all returned negative results, joining 26 passengers from a first flight on Sunday who had also tested negative.
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Three flights, all clear so far
The Hondius, a Dutch-flagged polar cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, was at the centre of an Andes virus outbreak that left three people dead, including a Dutch couple from Friesland and a German woman. After the ship docked off Tenerife last weekend, passengers were transported in stages to several countries for monitoring.
In the Netherlands, that involved three repatriation flights to Eindhoven. The first plane, with 26 people on board including eight Dutch nationals, arrived on Sunday and was followed by the second and third flights overnight on Monday. Blood samples taken from all arrivals were analysed by the RIVM and Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. On Thursday, the RIVM reported that all 26 people from the second and third flights had also tested negative, bringing the total of evacuees in the Netherlands with negative results to 52. The RIVM does not disclose individual results or nationalities.
A separate group of 26 people who were monitored in France has also tested negative, according to ANP. In total, 122 passengers and crew have now been repatriated from the ship to more than 20 countries.
Six-week home quarantine continues
Despite the negative test results, all repatriated passengers must complete a six-week home quarantine, in line with guidance from the European Centre for Disease Control. The quarantine began on 6 May, and the people in it will be retested every week. Each is in daily contact with their local public health service, the GGD, which is reachable 24 hours a day for any change in their condition.
The Andes virus has a relatively long incubation period and, unlike most hantaviruses, can in rare cases be passed between people. That is why testing on arrival is only an early-warning measure and not a "free pass" out of quarantine. The RIVM stresses that the risk to the wider public in the Netherlands remains "very low," and the World Health Organization has said the Andes virus is very unlikely to trigger a Covid-style pandemic.
Where the patients are
Earlier in the outbreak, three people who became ill on board were evacuated separately on medical flights and admitted to specialised hospitals in Europe. A 41-year-old Dutch man is being treated at Radboudumc in Nijmegen, where he has tested positive for the Andes virus. A 56-year-old British crew member is at the LUMC in Leiden, also positive. A 65-year-old German woman was admitted to the UKD hospital in Düsseldorf as a precaution and has tested negative.
Twelve Radboudumc staff also in quarantine
A separate complication has emerged at Radboudumc itself. Twelve hospital staff there have been placed in a six-week precautionary home quarantine after standard procedures around the handling of the patient's blood and urine were not followed strictly enough. According to the hospital, blood taken from the patient should have been processed under a stricter protocol given the type of virus, and the handling of urine on the Saturday after admission did not match the latest international guidance.
Radboudumc says the chance of any of the twelve staff being infected is small. None were considered contagious to others between the moment of possible exposure and going into quarantine. The hospital's executive board has expressed regret that the protocols broke down and says it will investigate "carefully" to prevent it from happening again. The LUMC in Leiden has stated that protocols were followed correctly there and none of its staff need to enter quarantine.
A careful next few weeks
For now, the picture for the Netherlands is reassuring: of more than 50 evacuees tested on arrival, none has been found to carry the virus. The next weeks of repeat tests during quarantine will give the clearest picture of whether the strict approach has worked. The Andes variant of the hantavirus has, in the meantime, been added to "group A2" of the Dutch list of notifiable infectious diseases, which obliges doctors and laboratories to report suspected cases to the GGD.
