British Cruise Passengers Fly Home from Tenerife for Hantavirus Quarantine

Twenty-two British nationals who were aboard the Dutch cruise ship HV Hondius flew home from Tenerife on a charter flight after the vessel docked there early Sunday morning. They will now go to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, to isolate for 72 hours.

Three people have died in the hantavirus outbreak, including two of the six people whom the World Health Organization has confirmed as infected. Hantavirus is a group of viruses carried by rodents. Most do not spread from person to person, but the Andes strain identified in several people from the ship does.

None of the 22 Britons have reported symptoms but are being monitored, the UK Health Security Agency said.

Janelle Holmes, CEO of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust, which oversees Arrowe Park Hospital, said the passengers will be screened and continuously assessed upon arrival. They will stay in self-contained flats with phone access to contact friends and relatives. A specialist team will remain on site during their quarantine to provide support.

"What we've learnt from past experience is they're going to be absolutely shattered. They've probably felt quite traumatised by the whole experience so the thing for us to do is to make sure that they're here, they're safe, they're welcome," Holmes said.

After leaving Arrowe Park, the former passengers must self-isolate for another 42 days as a precaution, UKHSA said.

In addition to the confirmed cases, two suspected cases exist, including a British man on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. He remains in stable condition and isolation.

Six British Army paratroopers and two medical clinicians parachuted onto the island to assist its two-person medical team in caring for the man and other residents.

Two other Britons are voluntarily self-isolating at home in the UK. They disembarked the vessel at St Helena on April 24 with dozens of other passengers before the first hantavirus case was confirmed.