Three Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Atlantic Cruise
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- MV Hondius cruise ship is the site of a suspected hantavirus outbreak that killed three people and sickened at least three others, according to the WHO and South Africa's health department.
- Two of the dead were a Dutch married couple aged 70 and 69; the husband died on Saint Helena island and the wife died at a hospital in Kempton Park, South Africa.
- A 69-year-old British man tested positive for hantavirus and was admitted to a private hospital in Johannesburg, according to South African authorities.
- Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch operator, said Cape Verdean authorities had not authorized the ship to disembark passengers needing urgent medical care, leaving two symptomatic individuals and a body stuck onboard off Praia.
- The WHO confirmed at least one hantavirus case, is coordinating medical evacuation of two symptomatic passengers to the Netherlands along with repatriation of the deceased, and is sequencing the virus.
- Hantavirus is typically caught from rodent urine or faeces, can in rare cases spread between people, and has no specific cure — though early medical attention improves survival odds, per the US CDC.
- The MV Hondius carries about 170 passengers and 70 crew; its itinerary departed Ushuaia, Argentina with planned stops at South Georgia and Saint Helena en route to Cape Verde.
Why it matters: Cape Verde's refusal to authorize disembarkation left two sick passengers and a body stuck offshore while the WHO, Netherlands, and South Africa coordinated cross-border evacuations — a rare person-to-person hantavirus transmission risk on a confined vessel raises stakes for the roughly 170 passengers and 70 crew still aboard, with no cure available.
