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A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is scheduled to arrive in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Monday morning. The MV Hondius has spent the past six days sailing from the Canary Islands, where the remaining passengers were escorted off the vessel by personnel in full-body protective gear and boarded flights to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine. The outbreak on the ship has reached 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed, according to the World Health Organisation. Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America. The vessel has made the journey from Tenerife up the coast of Africa and Europe with 25 crew members and two medical personnel. According to the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions, no one on board is experiencing any symptoms. Crew members who are unable to return home will be quarantined in the Netherlands, the Dutch health ministry
An oncologist travelling on the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has been cleared to leave a special biocontainment unit in Nebraska, where he was the lone American placed in isolation after he helped care for fellow passengers who became sick on board. Dr. Stephen Kornfeld of Bend, Oregon, was among more than 120 passengers and crew evacuated from the ship and flown to different countries to enter quarantine. Kornfeld was brought to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha with 15 other Americans, but he was the only one taken to an isolated biocontainment unit after a nasal swab he took on the ship produced inconclusive results about whether he had the virus. On Wednesday, the hospital announced that Kornfeld will now join the 15 other Americans who were taken for monitoring at the National Quarantine Unit, instead of the biocontainment unit, according to hospital spokesperson Kayla Thomas. Kornfeld appeared on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on a video
Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home aboard military and government planes after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, with one American testing positive and a French traveller developing symptoms for the pathogen aboard their separate aircraft. One the 17 American passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, US health officials said late Sunday. Earlier, one of the five French passengers developed symptoms on their flight home, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested. Passengers were evacuated off the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who wer
Amid concerns over two Indian nationals reportedly infected with the hantavirus aboard a cruise ship, Director of the ICMR's National Institute of Virology Dr Naveen Kumar on Friday said the cases appear to be isolated ones and there is no immediate public health threat to India. Kumar said there is no evidence of community spread as of now. Hantaviruses are mainly transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents or their excreta such as saliva, urine and faeces, he told PTI. People usually get infected by inhaling aerosolised virus particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva in closed or poorly ventilated spaces such as warehouses, ships, barns and storage areas, he said. "The reported hantavirus cases appear to be isolated ones and there is no immediate public health threat to India," he said. His remarks come after reports that two Indian nationals aboard a cruise ship were detected with hantavirus. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the two Ind
At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC. The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina's Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain's Canary Islands on May 10. About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report. Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported. The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed. A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German w
An outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. At least three passengers have died and several others are sick and were evacuated from the ship. Health authorities are trying to trace passengers who left the ship previously and people who might have had contact with them. More than 140 passengers and crew members are still aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius as it heads for Spain's Canary Islands. Hantavirus is a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, though the World Health Organisation says the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can't easily be passed between people. Here's a timeline of the outbreak: April 1 --------- The ship sets off from Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina. Scheduled stops include Antarctica and several isolated South Atlantic Ocean islands. April 6 --------- A 70-year-old Dutch man becomes sick on board with fever, headache and
More than two dozen passengers left a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak on April 24 without contact tracing, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board, the ship operator and Dutch officials said Thursday. The news raised concerns that the virus could spread as travellers returned home, although experts say the risk to the wider public is considered low. The Dutch-based company had previously said the body of the Dutch man who died on April 11 was taken off the ship on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena on April 24, when his wife also disembarked. She then flew to South Africa a day later and died there. The company said Thursday, 29 passengers left the vessel at St. Helena, while the Dutch Foreign Ministry put the number at about 40. The company had not previously acknowledged that dozens more people left the ship at that time. The people who left the ship to return to their home countries were of at least 12 different nationalities, Oceanwi
A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. Studies indicate hantaviruses have been around for centuries, with outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe. In the Eastern Hemisphere, it has been linked with hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure. It wasn't until the early 1990s that a previously unknown group of hantaviruses emerged in the southwestern United States as the cause of an acute respiratory disease now known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease gained attention last year after the late actor Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico. The World Health Organisation said in a statement Sunday that detailed investigations of the cruise ship outbreak are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing. The virus is spread by rodents and, more rarely, ...
A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people, including an elderly married couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organisation and South Africa's Department of Health said Sunday. In a statement to The Associated Press, WHO said an investigation was underway but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the UN's health agency said, and it was working with authorities to evacuate two others with symptoms from the ship. The Dutch company that operates the cruise said the ship was now sitting off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off Africa's west coast, and local authorities were assisting but had not allowed anyone to disembark. It said the two sick people onboard requiring urgent medical care were crew members. Hantavirus infections are spread mainly by rodents Hantaviruses, which are found throughout
Cruise aggregator TIRUN Travel Marketing on Monday said it has partnered with Air India to introduce integrated packages combining flights and cruises. This partnership, which commenced in November, will offer Indian travellers a seamless journey connecting Air India and Air India Express flights with cruise holidays from the TIRUN portfolio, the company said in a statement. Initially, under this partnership domestic and international flight connections will be integrated with cruise itineraries to destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and it will later expand to Sydney, Los Angeles, and destinations across Europe, TIRUN Travels said. "The Fly-Cruise program bridges the gap between doorstep and deck by creating a single, seamless travel experience. With Air India's extensive connectivity and our world-class cruise portfolio, we're making travel planning simpler- a top priority on today's traveller's wish list. Together, we continue to add value to the way India travels and .
The income tax department has notified amendments in I-T rules to prescribe conditions for applicability of presumptive taxation regime for non-resident cruise ship operators. As a measure to promote investment and employment, the government had in the July Budget, provided a presumptive taxation regime for non-residents, engaged in the business of operation of cruise ships. Further, exemption has been provided for any income of a foreign company from lease rentals of cruise ships, received from a related company which operates such ship or ships in India. As per the amendment to I-T Rules, 1962, notified on January 21, the applicability of this presumptive taxation regime is subject to conditions, including that the non-resident, engaged in the business of operation of cruise ships operate a passenger ship having a carrying capacity of more than 200 passengers or length of 75 metres or more, for leisure and recreational purposes and having appropriate dining and cabin facilities fo