Hantavirus Emergency Prompts First UK Long Range Paradrop of Medical Team
While the exploration cruise ship Hondius has now reached Tenerife and passengers are being evacuated to specialist medical facilities in their home countries, the need to provide medical support for a passenger who disembarked from the Hondius on the island of Tristan da Cunha has necessitated an unusual paradrop of a military medical team onto the island.
The individual who was a passenger on an earlier leg of the cruise is showing symptoms of hantavirus. With a public health risk of the disease spreading among the island population, the limited medical facilities on the remote island necessitated the dispatch of both specialist medical staff and additional medical supplies.
Medical supplies are dropped over the island of Tristan da Cunha (UK MoD)
“This was an extraordinary operation in incredibly challenging circumstances to get vital help to our citizens on Tristan da Cunha,” said the UK’s Minister for the Armed Forces, Al Carns.
Tristan da Cunha has a permanent population of about 250, which sustains itself by fishing and local agriculture. Unusually for a British Overseas Territory, Tristan da Cunha is not claimed by any other country, although it was used as a base by the U.S. Navy during the 1812-14 war with the United Kingdom.
The island has no airfield, and insufficient flat land for one to be constructed. The parachute drop was mounted by an RAF A330M aircraft, which flew from Ascension Island 1,750 miles to the north. The nearest inhabited land is the island of St. Helena, which is 1,330nm to the North East. An airport was opened on St. Helena in 2016 and was used in an earlier evacuation of a sick passenger from the Hondius.
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An Army specialist team consisting of six paratroopers and two military clinicians parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha to deliver critical medical support. Vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were also air-dropped onto the remote island.
The Ministry of Defence reports it is the first time the UK military has inserted medical personnel to provide humanitarian support via a parachute jump. The military team flew 6,788 km (over 4,200 miles) from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island. The aircraft then proceeded to fly over 3,000 km (over 1,800 miles) to Tristan da Cunha, where the personnel parachuted onto the island. They were supported by an RAF Voyager aircraft to refuel the A400M mid-air.
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