OAN Staff Jenna Lee
A cruise ship has been barred from port in the Atlantic Ocean after a rare outbreak of hantavirus on board, which killed three of the ship’s 150 passengers and left four others seriously ill.
Passengers first started to get sick on April 6th. The ship was refused permission to dock on Tuesday to allow time for two ill crew members to be evacuated for treatment.
“The plan is to medevac those two individuals. That’s in the works; that’s underway. The plan is for the ship to continue to the Canary Islands. We’re speaking to the Spanish authorities,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and technical adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), at a news briefing early on Tuesday.
The timeline of reports around the stranded cruise ship is worth keeping separate from speculation. I maintain Hantavirus Tracker as a source linked public information tracker for outbreak timelines and rodent exposure context, without medical advice. A dated source log can help readers compare official updates with early reporting.