In the wake of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has claimed three lives aboard an Antarctic cruise ship, six passengers with potential exposure to the virus touched down in Australia on Friday to start a mandatory quarantine set to last a minimum of 21 days. The long-range Gulfstream business jet that transported the group from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce, a military airfield located just outside Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Following their arrival, all passengers and the jet’s crew were transported to a purpose-built quarantine facility in the nearby town of Bullsbrook, according to Australian health officials.
Australian Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed last Thursday that national authorities have put in place what he described as one of the strictest and most robust quarantine protocols anywhere in the world to address this public health event. Of the six passengers entering quarantine, five hold Australian citizenship and one is a citizen of New Zealand. The Bullsbrook facility they are occupying was originally constructed in 2022 as part of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has stood almost entirely unused since its completion, until this hantavirus response.
Butler noted that officials have not yet finalized what additional precautionary measures will be put in place after the initial three-week quarantine period ends. The World Health Organization has stated that hantavirus can have an incubation window of up to 42 days, meaning potential infection could remain undetected beyond the initial 21-day isolation period. Other passengers from the affected cruise ship, the MV Hondius, who returned to their home countries in the United States and the United Kingdom, are completing their quarantine periods at their personal residences, Butler added.
All six passengers tested negative for hantavirus prior to departing the Netherlands, and none have shown any clinical symptoms of the virus as of their arrival in Australia, according to Butler. The outbreak, which was detected mid-voyage, has resulted in 11 confirmed cases among people aboard the MV Hondius, three of whom have died from complications linked to the infection.
The MV Hondius was operating an expedition cruise that departed Argentina for Antarctica, before continuing on to visit a number of remote isolated islands across the South Atlantic when the outbreak was first identified. After the evacuation of all passengers and most of the ship’s crew was completed, the vessel set sail back to the Netherlands, where it will undergo a comprehensive professional cleaning and full disinfection process before returning to service.