90-Second Read: Woman isolating on British island in South Pacific after Hantavirus contact

A woman is isolating on the Pitcairn Islands, a remote British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific, after travelling on a Hantavirus-hit cruise ship. On Tuesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was at that time "no sign" of a larger Hantavirus outbreak after the evacuation of the last passengers from the ship a day earlier. British army medics parachuted onto another remote British Overseas Territory, the south Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, to help a British resident with suspected Hantavirus who disembarked there on 14 April. The woman who was on a virus-hit ship shows "no signs of illness", the government of Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory, says. A local government spokesperson told the BBC the person "had contact with a Hantavirus-exposed individual" but was "showing.

Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain, which the WHO believes some of the ship's passengers contracted in South America, is possible. The woman, who has not been publicly named, was currently isolating on Pitcairn, the only inhabited of the four volcanic islands of the British Overseas Territory. UKHSA said the length of isolation for close contacts of cases, which those on the ship are considered to be, is 45 days. The UK foreign office said it was "aware of an individual from the MV Hondius who has travelled on to the Pitcairn Islands". The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN global health agency, has since confirmed nine cases, with two others suspected.

The woman had flown from San Francisco on 7 May and travelled through the island of Tahiti and then Mangareva in French Polynesia, the French Polynesian government said. The British foreign office told the BBC it was coordinating with the local authorities and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) "to manage the risks to the individual and the islanders". French Polynesia said passengers on the same flight as the woman from San Francisco to Tahiti were not considered close contacts and "the risk of infection is considered very low". The MV Hondius had been carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries after departing from Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on 1 April. Officials said she was not a suspected case and the risk to the public was low.

Authorities held an emergency meeting on Sunday and decided not to allow the woman now isolating on Pitcairn to re-enter French Polynesia. His 69-year-old wife left the ship on 24 April on the island of St Helena and flew to South Africa. Three people have died after travelling on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius ship. The wellbeing of our community remains the top priority." The Pitcairn Islands has a population of about 50 people and most of the residents are descendants of mutineers from the Royal Navy warship HMS Bounty who settled there in 1790. The MV Hondius left Spain's Tenerife island on Monday, and is expected to arrive to the Dutch city of Rotterdam on 17 May.