Medics parachute onto remote island in hantavirus treatment mission

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Army medics parachuted onto a remote Atlantic island this weekend to support a Briton with suspected hantavirus. Tristan da Cunha, population 221, is in the South Atlantic and can ordinarily only be accessed by boat. But the RAF sent an aircraft to drop two paratroopers, an intensive care nurse and an intensive care doctor to treat a man who disembarked the MV Hondius last month. He is said to be in a stable condition, but Tristan da Cunha is critically short of oxygen and other islanders may have been in contact with the man before he knew he might be contagious. On Sunday, 22 British passengers from the ship flew back to the UK to isolate at a quarantine site. They have to stay there for three days and then at home for a further 42.