The MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship carrying passengers affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, is expected to sail to the Canary Islands after urgent medical evacuations from Cape Verde, Spain’s health ministry said.
The ministry said the ship is expected to arrive within three to four days, though the exact port has not been chosen. Officials are still determining which passengers require immediate evacuation from Cape Verde and where the vessel can safely receive assistance.
Three passengers who had been aboard the Hondius have died since the ship left Argentina roughly a month ago on a transatlantic voyage. Two crew members, including the ship’s doctor, require urgent medical care, and a third person linked to a German national who died is also due to be evacuated, according to Spain’s health ministry.
The ministry said the doctor, who is in serious condition, would be evacuated to the Canary Islands on a hospital aircraft. Spain said the World Health Organization had indicated Cape Verde could not carry out the operation. “The Canary Islands are the closest location with the necessary capabilities,” the ministry said, adding that Spain had “a moral and legal obligation” to assist, including because several Spanish citizens are among those affected.
Why the ship is being moved
The Hondius has been near Cape Verde for several days as authorities and the cruise operator worked through evacuation and onward travel plans. Oceanwide Expeditions, the company behind the cruise, said specialized aircraft were being sent to evacuate two people needing urgent medical care and one guest linked to a passenger who died. The company said the vessel would begin repositioning once those people were safely transferred.
The current plan is for the ship to proceed to the Canary Islands, with Gran Canaria or Tenerife identified by the operator as possible destinations. Spain has said the precise port of call will be decided later; a New York Times summary of Spanish statements said that decision would follow an inspection by disease experts.
The ship had departed from Ushuaia in southern Argentina in late March on a voyage marketed as an Antarctic nature expedition, with stops or itinerary points including the Antarctic peninsula, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, according to reporting based on company documentation and WHO briefings.
What health officials are watching
Hantavirus usually spreads to people from infected rodents, not from casual person-to-person contact. The WHO has said, however, that transmission among “really close contacts” on the ship may have played a role. It has also stressed that the risk to the wider public is low.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters that when couples or close contacts are infected, investigators must consider whether both were exposed to the same source or whether one infected the other. She also said the virus does not spread as readily as influenza or COVID-19.
Passengers aboard the Hondius have been told to remain in their cabins as a precaution, according to CBC reporting on WHO guidance. The incubation period can last several weeks, meaning some infected people may not yet have symptoms.
Health investigators are still trying to determine the source of the outbreak. CBC reported that the ship’s operator has not reported a rodent infestation, while disinfection measures are being carried out. The WHO has said the working assumption is that the first infection occurred off the vessel.
There is no specific treatment for hantavirus. Care can include support for breathing problems, including oxygen or mechanical ventilation in serious cases.
For now, the most immediate questions are where the Hondius will dock in the Canary Islands, how quickly the sick can be moved into higher-level care and whether additional cases emerge as passengers and crew remain under medical monitoring.
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