90-Second Read: Army parachutes onto remote island to help Briton with suspected Hantavirus

British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to help a British national with suspected Hantavirus. The WHO has confirmed that as well as the six confirmed cases, there are two with suspected Hantavirus, which includes the British man on Tristan da Cunha. Meanwhile two Britons are voluntarily self-isolating at home in the UK, having disembarked the vessel at St Helena on 24 April before the first case of Hantavirus was confirmed. The man left MV Hondius, the cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of the virus, in mid-April at Britain's most remote inhabited overseas territory, where he lives. Six cases of the virus have now been confirmed, including of two other Britons currently being treated off the ship.

Three people have died in the outbreak, including two who were confirmed to have had Hantavirus. Most Hantaviruses do not pass from person to person, but the Andes strain, identified in a number of people who had been on the Dutch cruise ship, does. A team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted on to Tristan da Cunha, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean considered to be among the world's most remote islands, having flown from RAF Brize Norton. He first reported symptoms two weeks after leaving the vessel and is said be in a stable condition while isolating. He reported having diarrhoea on 28 April and fever two days later.

The specialist team parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory, to treat them. Oxygen was also dropped from an RAF A400M on Saturday, with supplies at a "critical level" on the island, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. Almost a month after the first death onboard the MV Hondius, the vessel has now arrived in Tenerife, where plans are under way to help more than 100 people onto shore to be repatriated. The British man who lives on Tristan da Cunha disembarked on 14 April, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. He is currently in a stable condition and is in isolation.

Two of the paratroopers jumped in tandem with an intensive care nurse and intensive care doctor, who will provide help to the island, which usually has a two-person medical team. The two British nationals with confirmed cases of the virus are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa. The safety and well-being of all members of the British family is our number one priority." Tristan da Cunha, which has a population of 221, has no airstrip and can only be reached by boat. Average winds are often over 25mph, causing difficult conditions for the paratroopers, the MoD said. No other British nationals remaining on board the Honidus are reporting symptoms but they are being monitored, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.