22 rat virus cruise passengers isolating in Merseyside hospital set to return home
The passengers and crew aboard the rat virus-stricken MV Hondius will leave Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral after 72 hours in quarantine.
Twenty-two people evacuated from the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak are set to start leaving a hospital in Merseyside, where they have been isolating upon their return to Britain.
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The passengers and crew aboard the rat virus-stricken MV Hondius will leave Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral after 72 hours in quarantine.
They must isolate for a further 42 days at home as authorities fight to stop the spread of the deadly disease.
If people cannot go home, they will be placed in other accommodation to see out the isolation period.
Among the group are 20 British nationals, a German national with UK residency and a Japanese passenger.
It comes as ten others linked to the cruise ship outbreak are set to return to Britain this week.
The group, from the UK overseas territories of St Helena and Ascension Island, had contact with people affected by the rat virus outbreak and will be relocated to British soil.
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Authorities said the group are already isolating and will continue to do so once they arrive in Britain.
They are being moved as the NHS in England was "well equipped to respond if they become unwell", the UK Health and Security Agency said.
Three people have died linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius, which was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.
Two of the victims have been named as Dutch ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, and his wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, 69.The outbreak struck down Mr Schilperoord on April 11, before his grieving wife died a few days later.
Professor Robin May, Chief Scientific Officer at UKHSA, said: "We are grateful to the passengers for their cooperation and patience in what we appreciate has been a very unsettling period for all involved.
"As this first assessment period concludes, our priority remains to ensure everyone is safe and well supported, wherever they complete their isolation.
Our teams will continue to be there for all of the affected individuals every step of the way."We would ask the media and the public to respect the privacy of the passengers and their families at what has been a very difficult and distressing time for everyone involved."
It comes as a French woman infected with a severe form of hantavirus is on life support in a hospital in Paris after returning from the cruise.
She is being treated with an artificial lung, according to Dr Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.
One British man with hantavirus is still being cared for in Johannesburg and is thought to be improving, while another is in the Netherlands.
Another British national has hantavirus and is isolating where he lives on the remote South Atlantic Island of Tristan da Cunha.
On Tuesday, two planes carrying 28 passengers from the ship landed in the Netherlands, as a Dutch hospital treating a patient with the rat-virus has quarantined 12 staffers as a preventative measure.