{"id":61175,"date":"2026-05-06T18:53:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/61175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:53:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:53:28","slug":"confirmed-hantavirus-cases-rise-to-5-from-dutch-cruise-ship-who-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/61175\/","title":{"rendered":"Confirmed hantavirus cases rise to 5 from Dutch cruise ship, WHO says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cclosely associated\u201d with a passenger who died on May 2 and is still being tested.<\/p>\n

The cruise ship has since been cleared to continue its voyage and has departed Cape Verde for Spain\u2019s Canary Islands, the Associated Press<\/a> reported. Despite opposition from local officials<\/a>, Spain\u2019s health minister doubled down on the plan for the ship to dock at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement on X Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

Health personnel assist patients onto a boat from the MV Hondius on May 6.<\/p>\n

(AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease,\u201d Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and technical adviser to the WHO, said Wednesday. \u201cMost people will never be exposed to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MV Hondius had been given permission to dock in the Canary Islands by the Spanish government, which said it had a \u201cmoral and legal obligation to assist these people\u201d after Cape Verde, the ship\u2019s planned destination, refused to allow passengers ashore.<\/p>\n

But Canary Islands regional leader Fernando Clavijo said Wednesday he opposed the ship docking there, stating there is not \u201csufficient \u2060information to reassure \u2060the public or guarantee their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot allow it to enter the Canary Islands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The WHO and European Union had asked Spain to take the MV Hondius “in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

What we know about the confirmed or suspected cases\"Health<\/p>\n

Health workers evacuate patients from the MV Hondius at Praia, Cape Verde, on May 6.<\/p>\n

(Misper Apawu\/AP)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The cause of his death and that of a German national have not yet been confirmed.<\/p>\n

According to South Africa\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What is hantavirus and how do people get it?\"A<\/p>\n

A microscopic view of liver tissue from a hantavirus patient.<\/p>\n

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Reuters)<\/p>\n

The hantavirus gained attention in February 2025 when the late actor Gene Hackman\u2019s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hantaviruses are a \u201cfamily of viruses which can cause serious illnesses and death,\u201d according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. 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\u2019s possible it can be transmitted through a bite or scratch from a rodent.<\/p>\n

Hantaviruses can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a severe respiratory illness, with a case fatality rate up to 40%, according to the WHO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Andes strain is mostly found in Chile and Argentina, where the ship set sail from. The WHO said on Tuesday that it\u2019s working under the assumption that the outbreak was caused by the Andes strain.<\/p>\n

Is there a vaccine for hantavirus?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A timeline of the MV Hondius\u2019s travel\"An<\/p>\n

The cruise ship MV Hondius off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 3.<\/p>\n

(AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The MV Hondius disembarked from Ushuaia, Argentina, in early April and has been at sea for about seven weeks.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On April 27, the ship\u2019s operator was informed that the wife had become unwell on her journey home and later died.\u00a0She tested positive for a variant of the hantavirus, the company said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On May 2, a German national passenger died on board. The cause of death has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Does the WHO have any theories about how the suspected outbreak occurred?<\/p>\n

Yes. Van Kerkhove explained during a Tuesday<\/a> press conference that the organization\u2019s working assumption is that the initial Dutch patient and his wife were infected before boarding the cruise ship in Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 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,\u201d Van Kerkhove said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that\u2019s happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who have shared cabins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The confirmed number of hantavirus cases from a Dutch cruise ship has risen to five, the World Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33653,33770,33657,33641,33654,33771,17,33660],"class_list":{"0":"post-61175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-canary-islands","9":"tag-confirmed-cases","10":"tag-cruise-ship","11":"tag-hantavirus","12":"tag-hondius","13":"tag-maria-van-kerkhove","14":"tag-switzerland","15":"tag-tested-positive"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116529149132897330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61175","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=61175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}