By News24.com

• Zimbabwe Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said three workers would be repatriated to Zimbabwe via private charter flight after authorities cited limited medical and isolation capacity on Ascension Island.
• All three tested negative for hantavirus on Sunday and are currently asymptomatic.
• Their evacuation follows heightened global concern after a suspected hantavirus outbreak in the Atlantic region reportedly killed three people and sickened others last week.

Three Zimbabwean health care workers identified as contacts of a confirmed hantavirus case on Ascension Island are being repatriated to Zimbabwe.

Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said on Monday that his department was notified of the planned evacuation of the three Zimbabweans via a private charter flight from the remote South Atlantic island.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care has been notified of the planned repatriation of three Zimbabweans from Ascension Island to Zimbabwe via a private chartered flight,” Mombeshora told journalists in Harare.

He said all three health care workers were identified as contacts of a confirmed hantavirus case while on the island.

Mombeshora added that PCR tests conducted on Sunday returned negative results for all three.

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“The three medical workers tested negative for PCR tests done yesterday, Sunday, 10 May. However, all three travellers are healthy and asymptomatic.”

He said the decision to evacuate them was driven by the island’s limited medical and isolation capacity.

Mombeshora added:

The evacuation has been necessitated by limited isolation and medical management capacity on the island, as well as the urgent availability of charter aircraft.

Zimbabwean health authorities said strict precautionary measures have been put in place for their arrival.

According to Mombeshora, the Zimbabwe Port Health Services had completed a risk assessment and would oversee screening procedures when the travellers landed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

“The travellers will undergo screening and assessment by port health officials upon arrival.”

He added that all three would remain under active monitoring during the recommended observation period and would be quarantined together at a designated private isolation facility.

Mombeshora said:

Appropriate infection prevention and control measures will be implemented throughout the transfer and monitoring process. Arrangements are also being made for the travellers to remain together in a designated private isolation facility during the quarantine period.

The repatriation follows international concern after the World Health Organisation last week reported that a suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean had killed three people, including an elderly couple, and sickened at least three others.

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses found worldwide and are primarily spread through contact with infected rodents, particularly through their urine or faeces.

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Ascension Island, where the Zimbabwean health care workers were based, is a remote volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean located roughly halfway between Africa and South America.

The island has a small population of between 800 and 1 000 people and limited health care infrastructure, which the Zimbabwean authorities said contributed to the decision to bring the three workers home for monitoring.