The confirmed number of hantavirus cases from a Dutch cruise ship has risen to five, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Two of the confirmed cases were among three patients evacuated from the MV Hondius.
On Wednesday, those with confirmed hantavirus were heading to hospitals in Amsterdam for urgent medical care. The third evacuated patient has no symptoms, but was “closely associated” with a passenger who died on May 2 and is still being tested.
The cruise ship has since been cleared to continue its voyage and has departed Cape Verde for Spain’s Canary Islands, the Associated Press reported. Despite opposition from local officials, Spain’s health minister doubled down on the plan for the ship to dock at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife.
“A joint system for health assessment and evacuation will be put in place to repatriate all passengers, unless their medical condition prevents it,” Monica Garcia Gomez told reporters.
Three passengers have died and five others have been sickened since the outbreak on the ship began. In all, there have been five confirmed cases of hantavirus, and three suspected cases. One of the confirmed cases is deceased. The death of the other two have not been confirmed to be from hantavirus.
Hantavirus is typically passed from rodents to humans through feces, saliva or urine. It can cause severe respiratory illness and can be fatal. Human-to-human transmission is rare. But in three confirmed cases, the patients tested positive for the Andes strain, which can be transmitted among people.
Still, global health officials say there is currently little risk of a wider outbreak because it can be spread only through close contact, such as sharing a bed or food.
“At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement on X Wednesday.
Health personnel assist patients onto a boat from the MV Hondius on May 6.
(AFP via Getty Images)
“This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease,” Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and technical adviser to the WHO, said Wednesday. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
The MV Hondius had been given permission to dock in the Canary Islands by the Spanish government, which said it had a “moral and legal obligation to assist these people” after Cape Verde, the ship’s planned destination, refused to allow passengers ashore.
But Canary Islands regional leader Fernando Clavijo said Wednesday he opposed the ship docking there, stating there is not “sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety.”
“I cannot allow it to enter the Canary Islands,” he said.
The WHO and European Union had asked Spain to take the MV Hondius “in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles.”
What we know about the confirmed or suspected cases
Health workers evacuate patients from the MV Hondius at Praia, Cape Verde, on May 6.
(Misper Apawu/AP)
The five confirmed hantavirus cases include a British passenger who is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a Dutch woman who died after disembarking with the body of her husband, who had shown symptoms before his death.
The cause of his death and that of a German national have not yet been confirmed.
According to South Africa’s health ministry, the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg and the British man who is hospitalized there were both infected by the Andes strain, which can be transmitted from human to human.
Swiss authorities on Wednesday confirmed a third hantavirus case, also the Andes strain, in a man who had traveled on the MV Hondius and returned home to Switzerland at the end of April. He visited his doctor when he noticed symptoms.
Two of the three patients evacuated from the MV Hondius on Wednesday were also confirmed to have hantavirus by laboratory testing, bringing the total confirmed cases to five.
What is hantavirus and how do people get it?
A microscopic view of liver tissue from a hantavirus patient.
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Reuters)
The hantavirus gained attention in February 2025 when the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.
Hantaviruses are a “family of viruses which can cause serious illnesses and death,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People can get hantavirus by coming into contact with rodents, such as mice and rats, particularly when exposed to their urine, feces and saliva. Though rare, it’s possible it can be transmitted through a bite or scratch from a rodent.
Hantaviruses can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a severe respiratory illness, with a case fatality rate up to 40%, according to the WHO.
Early symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches. Half of patients also experience headaches, dizziness, chills and gastrointestinal problems, according to the CDC. Symptoms can show 1 to 8 weeks after contact with an infected rodent.
The Andes strain is mostly found in Chile and Argentina, where the ship set sail from. The WHO said on Tuesday that it’s working under the assumption that the outbreak was caused by the Andes strain.
Is there a vaccine for hantavirus?
While there are no specific treatments nor vaccines for hantavirus infections, early supportive care and immediate referral to a facility with a complete ICU can improve survival, according to the WHO.
A timeline of the MV Hondius’s travel
The cruise ship MV Hondius off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 3.
(AFP via Getty Images)
The MV Hondius disembarked from Ushuaia, Argentina, in early April and has been at sea for about seven weeks.
On April 11, a Dutch passenger died on board, and the cause of death could not be determined on the ship, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. Around two weeks later, on April 24, the passenger was disembarked in St. Helena, accompanied by his wife, also a Dutch national.
On April 27, the ship’s operator was informed that the wife had become unwell on her journey home and later died. She tested positive for a variant of the hantavirus, the company said.
The same day, another passenger became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized in Johannesburg, South Africa. That passenger, who is British, also tested positive for hantavirus.
On May 2, a German national passenger died on board. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
On May 6, Swiss authorities confirmed a national who had been on the cruise and disembarked at the end of April had tested positive for hantavirus after visiting his doctor. That same day, 3 suspected hantavirus patients were evacuated from the ship.
Does the WHO have any theories about how the suspected outbreak occurred?
Yes. Van Kerkhove explained during a Tuesday press conference that the organization’s working assumption is that the initial Dutch patient and his wife were infected before boarding the cruise ship in Argentina.
“With the timing of the incubation period of hantavirus, which can be anywhere from one to six weeks, our assumption is that they were infected off the ship, perhaps doing some activities there,” Van Kerkhove said. “This was an expedition boat, and many of the people on board were doing bird watching; they were doing a lot of things with wildlife. Our assumption is that they were infected off the boat and then joined the cruise.”
Van Kerkhove also explained that the source of infection for the other suspected hantavirus cases may have come from different islands with rodents, as the ship traveled up the coast of Africa.
“However, we do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that’s happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who have shared cabins,” she said.