Tourist ship affected by Hantavirus leaves Cape Verde

2026-05-07 07:58:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Two people in serious condition who were evacuated from a cruise ship with a confirmed outbreak of the deadly hantavirus have arrived in the Netherlands for treatment, operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

A third passenger in stable condition was aboard an evacuation flight that has been postponed, the operator added.

The MV Hondius is now sailing towards Spain's Canary Islands, after being anchored for three days near Cape Verde, an archipelago nation off the coast of West Africa.

The three evacuees were British, Dutch and German. Oceanwide Expeditions said the German evacuee was "closely related" to a German woman who died on board the ship on May 2.

Three people aboard the ship have died since it left Argentina a month ago.

Meanwhile, two US states have confirmed to the BBC that they are monitoring three passengers who returned to the US after disembarking earlier. All are currently asymptomatic.

The Georgia Department of Public Health said two residents were being monitored and were in good health, showing no signs of infection.

The Arizona Department of Health said one resident was under monitoring but had no symptoms.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also confirmed that a man who had returned to Switzerland after disembarking from the ship tested positive for hantavirus and is receiving medical care at a hospital in Zurich.

"The patient responded to an email from the ship's operator informing passengers of the health event," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

A total of 146 people from 23 different countries remain on board the MV Hondius under "strict precautionary measures," Oceanwide Expeditions said.

In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said eight cases of hantavirus - three confirmed and five suspected - have been identified so far in people who were on the ship.

South African health authorities have said that the Andean strain of hantavirus - widespread in Latin America, where the cruise originated - was found in two of the confirmed patients after tests were carried out by the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Experts have observed the spread of the Andean strain among human patients in previous outbreaks. South Africa says efforts to trace all contacts are ongoing.

Officials have said that one of the deceased had the virus, while the other two deaths are under investigation.

One of the three deaths on board involves a Dutch woman who disembarked from the MV Hondius when it stopped on the island of St. Helena on April 24. Her husband died on board on April 11, but is not a confirmed case.

The Dutch woman traveled to South Africa, where she died on April 26. WHO official Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told the BBC that health experts were conducting contact tracing on the flight she took.

KLM Airlines issued a statement on Wednesday saying the woman had also been briefly on board one of their flights from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25, before the crew decided not to let her fly due to her health condition.

The third victim - a German woman - is also not a confirmed case. Her body remains on the ship.

None of the three people who were medically evacuated on Wednesday have tested positive for hantavirus so far, but two of them are showing symptoms.