Three passengers with suspected hantavirus infections were evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship on Wednesday and are being flown to the Netherlands for medical care, the World Health Organization confirmed. The evacuations were coordinated by WHO, the ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions, and national authorities from Cape Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. The vessel, which remains anchored off Cape Verde in the Atlantic, has been at the center of a rare outbreak of the rodent-borne virus that has so far involved seven cases among its 147 passengers and crew. According to WHO, those cases include three laboratory-confirmed infections, five suspected infections, and three deaths, with one passenger still in intensive care in Johannesburg and three others on board reporting mild symptoms.
The outbreak began after the Dutch-flagged expedition ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a voyage through the South Atlantic, stopping in Antarctica and other remote locations before heading toward Cape Verde. A Dutch man developed symptoms including fever, headache, and mild diarrhea on April 6 while on board and died on April 11. His body was removed to the British territory of Saint Helena on April 24. His wife disembarked on Saint Helena with gastrointestinal symptoms, collapsed during a flight to Johannesburg on April 25, and died in a South African hospital on April 26; she was later confirmed as a hantavirus case. A third fatality, an adult female passenger, died on May 2 after developing fever and pneumonia symptoms on April 28. A British man evacuated to Ascension Island and then South Africa on April 27 remains hospitalized in intensive care and is also a confirmed case.
WHO officials said the virus involved appears to be the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only variant known to have limited human-to-human transmission, and they are investigating possible spread among very close contacts on board. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the working assumption is that it is Andes virus, noting that authorities have been told there are no rats on board the ship. She added that human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out as a precaution, given that some of the cases had very close contact. Cape Verde has not allowed the ship to dock, and the vessel is now considering sailing to Las Palmas or Tenerife for disembarkation, a journey expected to take three days.
The WHO reiterated that the risk to the wider public remains low and that hantavirus does not transfer easily between humans. Contact tracing has been initiated for passengers on the flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg taken by the Dutch woman who died. The virus typically spreads through airborne particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva, and can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which has a fatality rate of around 40 percent. There are no specific antiviral treatments, so care is supportive, often including ventilators in severe cases. Medical evacuations are continuing as health authorities work to contain the outbreak and ensure the safety of the remaining passengers and crew still stranded on the Hondius.
