British paratroopers lead airdrop onto Tristan da Cunha for suspected hantavirus case

 

[1/3]An ICU Nurse and a paratrooper jump from 16 Air Assault Brigade to provide medical support to people , after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Friday confirmed one suspected case of Hantavirus of a British national on Tristan da Cunha, Britain, May 9, 2026. AS1 Georgia Callaway/UK MOD... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

MADRID, May 10 (Reuters) - British paratroopers have dropped onto Britain's most remote overseas territory, Tristan da Cunha, along with medics and medical supplies, after a case of suspected hantavirus was ​confirmed there.

A team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians from 16 ‌Air Assault Brigade jumped from an RAF A400M transport aircraft that flew 6,788 km (4,218 miles) from RAF Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire to Ascension Island then another 3,000 km due south to Tristan ​da Cunha.

"With oxygen
supplies on the island at a critical ‌level, ⁠an airdrop with medical personnel was the only method of getting vital care to the patient in time," the Ministry of Defence statement said.Tristan da Cunha, home to only around 200 people, is halfway between South Africa and South America. It is the ​world's remotest inhabited island, ​more than 2,400 ⁠km and a six-day boat ride from St Helena, its nearest inhabited neighbour. It usually relies on a medical team of two ​people for its health needs, and is normally only accessible ​by boat ⁠as it has no airstrip.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were previously delivered by military plane on May 7 to Ascension Island, where another British man from the cruise ship had disembarked before ⁠being medically ​evacuated to South Africa.