Health officials in multiple countries are tracking at least 11 confirmed or suspected hantavirus infections linked to the MV Hondius, including three deaths, after passengers and crew from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship began returning to several countries.
The outbreak has drawn unusual attention because the strain identified is Andes virus, a rare hantavirus that can cause severe cardiopulmonary illness and is the only known hantavirus strain documented to spread from person to person. Health officials say that kind of transmission requires prolonged close contact, and the World Health Organization has described the wider public health risk as low.
Still, the response is complex. The cruise involved passengers from many countries, some people left the ship before the outbreak was understood, and the virus can incubate for weeks before symptoms appear. Investigations, contact tracing, testing and isolation protocols are now underway in several countries.
How the outbreak unfolded
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a voyage through remote Atlantic destinations. The first known death occurred on April 11, when a 70-year-old Dutch man died aboard the ship after developing symptoms earlier that week. Hantavirus was not suspected at the time because his illness resembled other respiratory diseases, and no samples were taken, according to WHO officials cited in the source material.
His 69-year-old wife left the ship on April 24 at Saint Helena and died two days later in South Africa after her condition worsened during travel to Johannesburg. Her blood later tested positive for the Andes strain. Before boarding, the couple had taken a bird-watching trip through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, including areas where the rodent species known to carry Andes virus was present, according to the WHO. Officials have not established a final explanation for how the virus reached or spread aboard the ship.
A British passenger who developed respiratory symptoms was medically evacuated from Ascension Island to South Africa and later tested positive. A German passenger died aboard the ship on May 2 after developing fever and pneumonia-like symptoms. Two crew members — the ship’s doctor and a ship guide — were evacuated to the Netherlands and confirmed positive, while a third evacuee who had been considered a suspected case later tested negative.
Additional infections or suspected infections have since been identified after passengers left the ship. A Swiss man who disembarked in Saint Helena tested positive and was receiving care in Zurich. A French woman tested positive and was in intensive care as of May 12. Spain’s health ministry said a Spanish passenger tested positive while quarantined at a military hospital in Madrid. U.S. officials said one American passenger had a mild positive PCR test while asymptomatic, while another who developed symptoms tested negative. U.K. officials also reported a suspected case involving a British national on Tristan da Cunha.
Why Andes virus is different
Hantaviruses are generally rare and are usually transmitted to people through contact with contaminated rodent waste or saliva. They can lead to severe respiratory and pulmonary distress, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Andes strain is different because it has been associated with sporadic person-to-person spread. That has made contact tracing especially important, but experts cited in the source material cautioned that this outbreak is not comparable to a fast-moving respiratory pandemic. WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove put the distinction plainly: “This is not COVID, this is not influenza.”
The practical challenge is that passengers and crew did not remain in one place. Some left at Saint Helena, others were evacuated or repatriated from the Canary Islands after the ship reached waters off Tenerife, and some people may have shared flights or airport space with later-confirmed cases. The WHO has been in contact with officials in at least 12 countries monitoring people who returned after disembarking.
Countries are taking different approaches. The WHO recommended a cautious strategy that includes daily monitoring and home- or facility-based quarantine for 42 days. Spain placed returning nationals in a military hospital for quarantine. U.S. passengers were taken for monitoring and assessment in Nebraska and Georgia, with one positive-testing passenger placed in a biocontainment unit and others monitored in quarantine settings. Canadian officials, according to CBC’s reporting, have also used province-by-province isolation plans for returning travelers and possible contacts.
More cases could still appear because of the long incubation window. Public health officials are watching for symptoms among people who were aboard the ship, disembarked earlier in the voyage or had close contact with confirmed cases during travel.
For now, the central questions remain how the outbreak began, how much person-to-person transmission occurred aboard the Hondius, and whether monitoring will identify any additional infections before the cluster burns out.
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