{"id":78294,"date":"2026-05-08T23:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/78294\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:26:14","slug":"new-hantavirus-case-suspected-on-remote-island-as-british-man-is-hospitalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/78294\/","title":{"rendered":"New hantavirus case suspected on remote island as British man is hospitalized"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMSTERDAM, May 8 (Reuters) \u2013 A new suspected case of\u00a0hantavirus<\/a>\u00a0has been identified in a British man who was a \u200bpassenger on the virus-hit\u00a0luxury cruise ship<\/a>\u00a0MV Hondius and is now on the remote South Atlantic island of\u00a0Tristan da Cunha<\/a>, health authorities said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The UK \u200cHealth Security Agency did not disclose further details of the new suspected case on the British overseas territory where the cruise ship<\/a> made a stop on April 15.<\/p>\n

Tristan da Cunha, home to only around 200 people, is halfway between South Africa and South America and the world\u2019s remotest inhabited island, more than 1,500 miles and a six-day boat ride from St Helena, its nearest inhabited \u200bneighbor.<\/p>\n

A new suspected case of\u00a0hantavirus\u00a0has been identified in a British man who is now on the remote South Atlantic island of\u00a0Tristan da Cunha, health authorities said on Friday. Dmitry \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Tristan da Cunha is halfway between South Africa and South America and is the world\u2019s remotest inhabited island.<\/p>\n

Health personnel assist patients onto a boat from the cruise ship MV Hondius, while stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 6, 2026.\u00a0 AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

An islander had been hospitalized and his wife was self-isolating, the UK Minister for the Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty, said in a statement posted on\u00a0Tristan \u200bda Cunha<\/a>\u2018s local government website.<\/p>\n

Four islanders took a lift on the Dutch-flagged vessel to St Helena, he added. Tristan da Cunha administrator \u2060Philip Kendall said these had been advised to self-isolate there as a precaution.<\/p>\n

While the new case remained suspected, the announcements of precautions will fuel concerns about the \u200bAndes strain of hantavirus found on the ship<\/a> that in rare cases can spread from human to human.<\/p>\n

Three people \u2014 a Dutch couple and a German national \u2014 died following the outbreak<\/a> on \u200bthe MV Hondius.<\/p>\n

An islander had been hospitalized and his wife was self-isolating, the UK Minister for the Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty, said in a statement posted on\u00a0Tristan \u200bda Cunha\u2019s local government website. Grantat \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Four others confirmed to be infected, two Britons, a Dutch and a Swiss national<\/a>, are being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland, and a fifth case is suspected, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

Those figures do not include the suspected case on Tristan da Cunha. The World Health Organization said it would provide an update later on Friday.<\/p>\n

Low risk of widespread contagion<\/p>\n

The US \u200bCenters for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the hantavirus outbreak<\/a> as a\u00a0\u2018level 3\u2019<\/a>\u00a0emergency response, the lowest level of emergency activation.<\/p>\n

Medics escort a patient, evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, to an ambulance after being flown to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on May 6, 2026 AP<\/p>\n

A member of medical personnel boards a ship from a medical boat, after an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus on board the cruise ship MV Hondius, at sea, in this still image from a social media video released on May 5, 2026. Kasem Ibn Hattuta via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Other experts have also stressed the low probability \u200bof a widespread contagion<\/a>, but the outbreak has put authorities on high alert as they urge all who have been in contact with passengers who left the Hondius to watch out for possible \u200csymptoms.<\/p>\n

Several US \u2060states have said they are monitoring asymptomatic residents who had returned home after disembarking from the cruise ship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Singapore<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday isolated and tested two residents who had been aboard the ship.<\/p>\n

No new infections in Netherlands <\/p>\n

Three people who had been close to the Dutch woman before she was taken off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25, had now tested negative for the virus, Dutch health authorities said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Among them was a flight attendant who had been admitted to a hospital<\/a> in Amsterdam with symptoms of \u200ba possible infection, the World Health Organization \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n

Ambulances are pictured at Schiphol East at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on May 7, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Christian Lindmeier, a World Health Organization \u2060spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva that the flight attendant had been in close contact with the passenger who died but had tested negative all the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should convince nearly everybody now that this is a dangerous virus but only to the person \u200bwho\u2019s really infected, and the risk for the general population remains absolutely low,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

No symptomatic passengers on board ship<\/p>\n

Cruise operator \u200bOceanwide on Thursday said \u2060there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection remaining on board the ship, which was expected to dock in Tenerife in the Canary Islands<\/a> early on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The WHO has said it was working on step-by-step guidance for when the dozens of passengers remaining on the ship disembark and travel home<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dutch government said on Friday it was still working \u2060on plans to \u200brepatriate the ten Dutch nationals on board and it was too early to share details.<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Minister \u200bTom Berendsen said the Netherlands was only responsible for the Dutch passengers on the ship, sailing under the Dutch flag, though it also felt a responsibility to ensure that all the ship\u2019s passengers got home safely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMSTERDAM, May 8 (Reuters) \u2013 A new suspected case of\u00a0hantavirus\u00a0has been identified in a British man who was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[199,21322,13272,40852,200,1161],"class_list":["post-78294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-cruises","tag-diseases","tag-hantavirus","tag-netherlands","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116541547218946401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}