US plans evacuation flight for Americans on hantavirus ship

The United States said Friday it was organizing an evacuation flight for Americans on a hantavirus-struck cruise ship that has sailed to the Canary Islands, which are part of Spain.

"The Department of State is arranging a repatriation flight to support the safe return of American passengers on this ship," a State Department spokesperson said.

The State Department said it was coordinating with the Spanish government as well as other US federal agencies.

"We are in direct communication with Americans on board and are prepared to provide consular assistance as soon as the ship arrives in Tenerife, Spain," the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity.

The ship operator earlier said that 17 Americans were onboard. The State Department did not immediately give a number of US passengers.

Three passengers from the MV Hondius -- a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman -- have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

The only hantavirus strain that can transmit from person to person -- Andes virus -- has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fueling international concern.

The ship is due in Tenerife on Sunday.

The flight will then take the American cruise passengers to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and then on to a national quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"At this time, the risk to the American public remains extremely low," the CDC said.

Nebraska Medicine, a health care network, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center said that the US citizens will be cared for in the federally funded National Quarantine Unit.

"At this time, the individuals being monitored are well with no symptoms of illness," they said in a statement.

The World Health Organization has said that the United States is among 12 countries with nationals who have already left the ship, on the remote British island of Saint Helena on April 24.

Two Singaporeans isolated

Two Singapore residents who had been on board a hantavirus-hit cruise ship have tested negative to the rare respiratory disease, Singapore's Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said Friday.

The two men aged 65 and 67 had been on the MV Hondius and also the same flight as a confirmed hantavirus case from St Helena to Johannesburg on April 25, the CDA said a day earlier. The confirmed case did not travel to the city-state and died in South Africa.

The CDA's National Public Health Laboratory conducted testing with "multiple samples collected from the individuals", that confirmed that hantavirus, including the Andes virus, was "not detected", it said in a statement late Friday.

As a precaution, the two men will remain in quarantine for 30 days from the date of last exposure, and testing will be conducted again before release from quarantine, CDA added, saying "the risk to the general public in Singapore remains low".

Both men had arrived in Singapore in early May before being isolated and monitored at Singapore's National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

One was reported to have a runny nose but was otherwise well, and the other was asymptomatic, the CDA said Thursday.

The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since May 2, when the UN's health agency was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus.

Eight cases, including three deaths, had been linked to the cluster on the cruise ship by Wednesday, according to CDA.

The rare disease is usually spread from infected rodents, typically through urine, droppings and saliva.

However, experts have confirmed that the version of the virus detected aboard the Hondius is a rare strain that can be transmitted between humans.

WHO confirms six cases so far

There are six confirmed cases of hantavirus so far out of eight suspected ones following an outbreak on a cruise ship, the World Health Organization said Friday.

"As of 8 May, a total of eight cases, including three deaths (case fatality ratio 38%), have been reported. Six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections, with all identified as Andes virus (ANDV)," it said in a statement.

"WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update the risk assessment".

"The risk for passengers and crew on the ship is considered moderate," it added.