The State Department spent three-quarters of a million dollars to sail an American citizen who was exposed to hantavirus off a remote British island in the South Pacific.
The woman was exposed to hantavirus in April while aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, according to two government officials and a government document obtained by the Associated Press. The hefty expenditure on her evacuation further strains the State Department’s emergency budget, which has already been taxed by the war with Iran and the recent Ebola outbreak.
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Ocean Expedition’s MV Hondius left Patagonia with roughly 150 passengers on April 1. The ship made stops in Antarctica and the South Atlantic before arriving in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa.
The woman, whom the officials did not name to comply with medical privacy law, disembarked the MV Hondius and eventually traveled to Pitcairn Island through San Francisco and Fiji. It is unclear why she traveled from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific.
A local government spokesperson told the BBC last month that the person “had contact with a hantavirus-exposed individual” but was “showing no signs of illness.” Three people have died as a result of the cruise ship outbreak.
The State Department drew from its “K Fund,” its emergency budget, to finance the woman’s extraction via the Titaina Explorer yacht, which is owned by the French explorer Olivier de Kersauson. The operation is ongoing, meaning that its cost is not finalized.
The boat is transporting the woman some 1,200 miles to Easter Island, a Chilean territory. The island’s airport offers service to Santiago, from where she can return to the United States.
The State Department is considering transferring $50 million into the “K Fund,” $35 million earmarked for embassy security and $15 million from diplomatic programming. The department has also considered asking Congress to add money to the fund, according to the Associated Press.
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Pitcairn Island’s roughly 50 inhabitants are primarily descended from nine British sailors who mutinied on the HMS Bounty in 1789. The island was embroiled in scandal in 2004 when around one-third of its male population, including its mayor, went on trial in New Zealand for sex crimes against children.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department for comment.
