06\/05\/2026 – 14:14Air ambulance for suspected hantavirus patients leaves Cape Verde<\/p>\n
An air ambulance sent to retrieve three people believed infected with hantavirus on a cruise ship off Cape Verde has left the archipelago nation’s airport, an AFP journalist witnessed.<\/p>\n
The three were evacuated from the boat earlier, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said they are being taken to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 13:44MV Hondius has requested to dock at Tenerife on Saturday, Spain’s Canary Islands leader says<\/p>\n
The \u200boperator of \u200bthe MV Hondius has \u200crequested to dock at the \u2060Spanish port of Santa \u200bCruz on \u200cthe island of Tenerife on Saturday, \u200cthe Canary \u200bIslands’ regional leader, Fernando Clavijo, told reporters.<\/p>\n
He has \u200bpreviously said \u200bthe regional government \u200bwas opposed to Madrid’s decision to receive the \u2060ship.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:46EXPLAINER: What is the hantavirus ?<\/p>\n
WHAT IS IT?<\/p>\n
Hantaviruses are rodent-borne viruses that can infect people and cause \u200billness. The World \u200cHealth Organization estimates there are 10,000 to 100,000 human cases globally each year, \u2060with severity varying by strain.<\/p>\n
HOW IS THE VIRUS SPREAD?<\/p>\n
Hantavirus spreads primarily through rodents, infecting people via contact with rats or mice, or their urine, droppings or \u200csaliva \u2013 often when the virus becomes airborne during cleaning of infested areas. Less commonly, it \u2060spreads through contaminated surfaces.<\/p>\n
The Andes strain of hantavirus, found largely in Argentina and Chile, is the only known variant that can spread through close, prolonged human-to-human contact. The WHO confirmed on Wednesday that \u200bthe outbreak on the cruise ship is the Andes hantavirus.<\/p>\n
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF \u200cINFECTION?<\/p>\n
Hantaviruses common in different parts of the world cause different symptoms or diseases \u2013 and some cause none at all.<\/p>\n
Symptoms typically begin one to eight weeks after exposure and may include fever, muscle aches and gastrointestinal issues, according to the \u200cWHO.<\/p>\n
In Europe and Asia, hantaviruses have been known to cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which mainly affects the kidneys and blood vessels.<\/p>\n
In the Americas, infection \u200bcan cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, which progresses quickly and leads to fluid buildup in the lungs along with heart complications.<\/p>\n
Fatality rates from hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome are up to 50 percent, the WHO says, compared to 1-15 percent from \u200bthe infections common in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n
\n 06\/05\/2026 – 12:37 Hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads to Spain to dock in Canary Islands<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:36Cruise ship passenger with hantavirus being treated in Zurich<\/p>\n
A former passenger on a cruise ship stricken by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is being treated in a Zurich hospital for the disease, Swiss authorities said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“One person has tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland,” said a Swiss health ministry statement.<\/p>\n
The man was being treated at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) and the ministry said the hospital was “prepared to deal with such cases, is able to care for the patient, and guarantee the safety of staff and all patients”.\u00a0“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public.”<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the man returned from a trip to South America with his wife at the end of April, “after travelling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:33WHO assessment of cruise ship Hantavirus remains ‘low risk’ despite human-to-human spread<\/p>\n
Confirmation that \u200bthe cruise ship \u200bHantavirus outbreak can spread from human-to-human does \u200bnot \u200cchange the \u2060World Health Organization’s (WHO) \u200crisk assessment, which remains at \u2060low risk, the U.N. body’s \u200bSouth<\/p>\n
Africa representative \u200csaid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“No, it doesn’t change \u200cthe risk assessment \u200bbecause … it’s primarily (spread) when one gets into contact \u200bwith an \u200binfected rodent and \u200beven … human to human \u200bis (only spread) within very, very close contacts,” Shenaaz El-Halabi \u2060told Reuters in a videocall.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:32British, German and Dutch nationals evacuated from hantavirus-hit ship, ministry says<\/p>\n
The \u200bthree people \u200bwho have been evacuated from a luxury cruise \u200bship \u200chit \u2060by a \u200cdeadly hantavirus outbreak are from \u2060the Netherlands, Britain and Germany, the \u200bDutch foreign \u200cministry said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Two of \u200cthe people are \u200bsick, and one was possibly infected with the \u200bvirus, the \u200bministry said. \u200bThey will be \u200btaken to specialised hospitals in Europe, it added without \u2060giving further information.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:05Cruise ship passenger hospitalised with hantavirus in Zurich<\/p>\n
A former passenger on the MV Hondius has been hospitalised in Zurich and has tested positive for the virus, the Swiss health ministry said.<\/p>\n
“One person with a hantavirus infection is currently being treated at the University Hospital Zurich,” said a ministry statement. It added that the man “returned to Switzerland after travelling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 12:02What we know so far:
\n The MV Hondius cruise ship has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday, when the UN’s health agency was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus \u2013 a rare disease usually spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva.Three people infected with hantavirus have been taken off the MV Hondius while the ship was anchored off the coast of Cape Verde. The three people are being flown to the Netherlands for treatment.Health officials confirmed the presence of the rare Andes strain, the only known form of the virus capable of human-to-human transmission.Health experts raised concern that a wider outbreak could be on the cards after a Dutch woman with symptoms left the ship and was flown on a passenger plane to Johannesburg, where she later died on April 26.South Africa’s health ministry said that contact tracing was underway, with 62 contacts identified including flight crew and healthcare workers. The contacts will be monitored until an incubation period has passed and none have been diagnosed with the hantavirus \u200bso far.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 11:54Three suspected hantavirus cases ‘evacuated’ from cruise ship: WHO chief<\/p>\n
Three people believed to have been infected with hantavirus have been evacuated from a cruise ship off Cape Verde, the WHO chief said, adding that “the overall public health risk remains low”.<\/p>\n
“Three suspected hantavirus case patients have just been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.<\/p>\n
06\/05\/2026 – 11:53Two disease specialists heading to hantavirus cruise boat<\/p>\n
Two doctors specialised in infectious diseases are heading from the Netherlands to the MV Hondius ship that has seen a deadly outbreak of hantavirus, its operator said.<\/p>\n
“Two infectious disease physicians, currently en route from the Netherlands, will embark MV Hondius and remain with the vessel after its anticipated departure from Cape Verde,” said Oceanwide Expeditions in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"06\/05\/2026 – 14:14Air ambulance for suspected hantavirus patients leaves Cape Verde An air ambulance sent to retrieve three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[234,29798,3681,33641,1002,33642,3505,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-60967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-cape-verde","10":"tag-diseases","11":"tag-hantavirus","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-virus","14":"tag-who","15":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116527595928674195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}