WHO Monitors Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak After Three Deaths, Seven Confirmed Cases

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the UN health agency, confirmed that “at the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak” of hantavirus, following the final passenger evacuations from the MV Hondius. Despite this, he cautioned that “the situation could change” and that additional confirmed cases remain a possibility in the coming weeks, given the virus’s extended incubation period.

The MV Hondius departed Tenerife for Rotterdam after three people linked to the vessel died, and seven cases of hantavirus have been confirmed. An American and a French national who had returned home previously tested positive. Twelve employees at a Dutch hospital are now in quarantine as a precautionary measure, after treating an evacuated passenger without adhering to strict protocols for handling blood and urine samples.

Hantaviruses are typically carried by rodents, but human-to-human transmission of the Andes strain, believed to have been contracted in South America by some passengers, is possible. Symptoms include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, and shortness of breath.

The vessel is expected to arrive in Rotterdam on 17 May, where it will undergo sanitation. The final six passengers—four Australians, one Briton, and one New Zealander—and some crew members disembarked on Monday. In total, 122 passengers and crew have been repatriated.

Among the confirmed cases, two British nationals are receiving treatment in the Netherlands and South Africa. A Spanish individual quarantining in Madrid also provisionally tested positive. A French woman is isolating in Paris with deteriorating health, and 22 contacts are being traced. Two American nationals on a repatriation flight also showed mild symptoms and travelled in “biocontainment units” as a precaution.

An elderly Dutch man, who died on board on 11 April, is believed to be the first infected. His wife, who left the ship on 24 April, died two days later in a Johannesburg clinic. A German woman also died on board the cruise ship on 2 May. Both women were confirmed cases. The MV Hondius had been carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries after departing from Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April.