The cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has arrived in the Dutch port of Rotterdam for disinfection, ending a fraught voyage that prompted international health alerts.
The MV Hondius entered Rotterdam with 25 crew and two medical personnel on Monday morning after all the passengers disembarked elsewhere.
Individuals on deck were wearing masks as the vessel was guided through the port.
Authorities say that the crew will enter immediate quarantine.
The outbreak has led to at least 11 reported cases, nine confirmed.
Three passengers died, including a Dutch couple believed by health officials to have been initially exposed in South America.
The MV Hondius sailed for six days from the Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were escorted off by personnel in full-body protective gear. They then boarded flights to over 20 countries for isolation.
Internationally, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced one of four Canadians isolated after leaving the ship tested positive Sunday. Information will be shared with the World Health Organization.
The vessel 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 said last week. Some two dozen passengers and crew are already in quarantine in the Netherlands after arriving in the country on a series of flights over the previous two weeks.
Eighteen Americans are currently under observation at specialized healthcare facilities in the United States designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases.
After everyone on board has disembarked, the ship will be decontaminated based on Dutch public health guidelines. “Personal protective measures are being taken to ensure that the cleaners do not need to quarantine after the cleaning,” the health ministry said in a letter to the Dutch parliament last week.
Public health officials will inspect the vessel before it is allowed to sail again. The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius is the first known case on a cruise ship.
The Dutch company that owns the cruise ship said it doesn’t foresee any changes to its operations. It has an Arctic cruise setting sail from Keflavik, Iceland, on May 29.
France’s Pasteur Institute said on Saturday it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous.
