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US sending charter flight to bring Americans home from hantavirus cruise ship after three die and fear spreads across multiple states
Three people are dead. Several more are sick. And now America is racing to get its citizens off a luxury Cruise Ship that turned into a floating nightmare. A charter flight is heading to Spain to yank the remaining Americans off the MV Hondius before the situation explodes further.
The CDC has activated emergency protocols. A team of health experts is flying to the Canary Islands to meet the ship when it docks on May 10. From there, seventeen Americans will be loaded onto a military medical flight and flown straight to a quarantine center in Omaha, Nebraska. No stops. No delays. No chances taken.
US sending charter flight to bring Americans home from hantavirus cruise ship as states scramble to track every possible exposure
The mess is already spilling beyond the ship. At least six states are now monitoring passengers WHO returned home earlier. Georgia. Texas. Virginia. Arizona. California. New Jersey’s governor confirmed two residents may have been exposed on a flight with an infected passenger. The virus is not waiting for anyone.
The voyage started innocently enough. The Dutch-owned ship left Argentina on April 1. Passengers paid good money for a luxury adventure. Now twenty-nine people who got off at St Helena on April 24 are being hunted down by contact tracers. Six of them were Americans. Five of the eight suspected cases linked to the outbreak have been confirmed.
The CDC says the risk to the general public is low. But that is little comfort to the families waiting for news. The incubation period on this virus can stretch up to six weeks. More cases could emerge at any moment. The World Health Organization warns against complacency.
Trump says everything is under control. He promised a full report. But behind the scenes, the cracks are showing. His administration slashed ten thousand health jobs in a cost-cutting drive. The CDC team that helps cruise ships handle outbreaks was completely wiped out in April. Now the same agency is scrambling to manage a crisis it was stripped of resources to fight.
The US withdrawal from the WHO has made things worse. Access to international outbreak data is weaker. The global surveillance network took a hit. Experts say the timing of these cuts could not be more reckless.
The ship is sailing toward Spain. The charter flight is being prepped. Americans on board are about to be evacuated under tight medical watch. What started as a dream vacation has become a desperate race to stop a killer virus from spreading further.
