MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British paratroopers drop onto Tristan da Cunha to treat suspected hantavirus case

3.3 tonnes of medical equipment were airdropped in three batches, including bottled oxygen, the island's supplies of which had fallen to critical levels

A British military team parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha on Saturday, the United Kingdom's most remote overseas territory, to assist a British national suspected of contracting hantavirus, in the first humanitarian operation of its kind carried out by the British Armed Forces. The island, home to 221 residents, has no airstrip and is normally accessible only by sea.

Six paratroopers and two military clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade jumped from a Royal Air Force A400M transport aircraft. Almost simultaneously, 3.3 tonnes of medical equipment were airdropped in three batches, including bottled oxygen, the island's supplies of which had fallen to critical levels. The personnel landed on the local golf course; the supplies, in an area known as “the Patches.”

The aircraft flew 6,788 kilometers from RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, to Ascension Island, and from there more than 3,000 kilometers south to Tristan da Cunha. An RAF Voyager carried out mid-air refueling. Weather conditions over the volcanic archipelago are particularly demanding, with average wind speeds frequently exceeding 25 miles per hour.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed the suspected case on Friday. The patient was a British passenger on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which docked at the island during its April itinerary. The vessel, carrying around 150 people, is at the center of the international hantavirus outbreak that has left three dead and at least five laboratory-confirmed cases among the eight identified by the World Health Organization.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper thanked Armed Forces and RAF personnel for “acting at pace to get urgent medical support to Tristan da Cunha” and said the operation reflected the United Kingdom's commitment to its overseas territories. Brigadier Ed Cartwright, commanding officer of 16 Air Assault Brigade, described the mission as “a joint effort” with the RAF and emphasized “the speed, reach and utility of parachuting.”

British nationals aboard the MV Hondius, which will be evacuated on Sunday at Tenerife, are to be repatriated to the United Kingdom and placed in isolation for 45 days under UKHSA monitoring. Health authorities maintain that the risk to the general public remains very low.