A specialist team of army and medical personnel have been parachuted on to the British overseas territory Tristan da Cunha with medical aid and equipment after a British national showed symptoms of hantavirus.
The patient had been on board the cruise ship MV Hondius where an outbreak of the virus has killed three people, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed.
They are currently in hospital on the island where they live, the UK minister for the overseas territories, Stephen Doughty, said in a statement.
In a first operation of its kind, six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted onto the island to provide support, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed on Sunday.
Oxygen supplies and medical aid was also dropped on to the remote island, which is normally only accessible by boat.
The RAF A400M transport aircraft flew from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island, supported by an RAF Voyager, before heading to Tristan da Cunha.
The MoD said it was the first time medical personnel had been parachuted in to provide humanitarian support.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the safety of “all members of the British family” is the top priority.
She said: “We will continue to work closely with international authorities and the Tristan da Cunha administration, keeping those affected informed and ensuring the right support is in place in the UK and across the Overseas Territories.”
Tristan da Cunha is remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is Britian’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, is accessible only by boat, has no airstrip, and has a population of 221 inhabitants.
The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning, and British passengers will be repatriated to isolate at the hospital used as the UK’s initial Covid quarantine site, as the UKHSA said the risk to the public “remains very low”.
UKHSA said passengers will be transferred to an isolation facility at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside, after being repatriated to the UK on a chartered flight.
Officials from the UKHSA and Foreign Office were due to greet the MV Hondius when it docked in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, with Britons on board tested for hantavirus before they disembark.
If people test negative and are not displaying symptoms, they will be taken straight to a chartered repatriation flight staffed by medical professionals and containing personal protective equipment such as face masks.
After returning to the UK, the passengers will be housed in an accommodation block on the Arrowe Park site away from the hospital’s public areas to receive clinical assessments and testing as a precautionary measure.
The hospital was used to house British citizens returning from Wuhan, China, in January 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic.
The World Health Organisation said on Saturday there were no symptomatic passengers on board the ship.
The UN health agency said there had been six confirmed hantavirus cases linked to MV Hondius and four patients were currently in hospital.
It added that a total of eight cases, including three deaths, had been reported – with one previous suspected case being reclassified after testing negative for hantavirus.
The UKHSA said three British nationals are included in the eight cases – two involve confirmed hantavirus and another one is suspected.
The two confirmed British cases are in hospital in South Africa and the Netherlands, while the third British national in Tristan da Cunha was being supported by health services on the remote South Atlantic island.
