According to a report by the British newspaper The Independent on the 10th, the British military sent paratroopers and medical personnel to the Tristan da Cunha islands in the South Atlantic Ocean for emergency treatment of a British citizen suspected of being infected with hantavirus.
Tristan da Cunha, with just 221 inhabitants, is a remote archipelago 2,800 km from Cape Town, South Africa, with no airstrip and a six-day journey by sea. As the island’s oxygen reserves are running low, suspected patients need emergency oxygen supply treatment, high-altitude parachute has become the only feasible way to rescue. The rescue team, consisting of six paratroopers, an Air Force doctor and an army nurse, flew 11,265 km from RAF, taking 56 hours, with the support of Air Force tankers, the team reached the target sea area.
According to reports, the suspected patient has been on board the“Hongdius” cruise ship, the multinational hantavirus outbreak is the core source. The ship has been linked to six confirmed cases and three deaths, including a Dutch couple and a German woman, according to the World Health Organization. At present, the British suspected patients in isolation on the island, by the island’s small medical team and the British military medical staff sent to co-care. The 22 British passengers on board the ship have started the process of returning home, will undergo a health assessment and 45 days of voluntary isolation. With the evacuation of cruise passengers, the outbreak has been extended to a number of countries. One asymptomatic case and one mild case were reported among 17 returning passengers in the United States. In France, a female returnee was diagnosed and her condition continued to worsen. Twenty-two close contacts have been identified.
For the public concern, who director-general TED sense stressed that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus is very rare, people are at low risk of infection, there is no need for excessive panic. Public Health England officials also said that the risk of infection for the general population continues to be low.