Cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak heads to Canary Islands after 3 are
evacuated
[May 07, 2026]
By ANNIE RISEMBERG, MISPER APAWU, ALEKSANDAR FURTULA and
ISABEL DEBRE
PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Two patients with hantavirus and one suspected
of infection were evacuated Wednesday from a cruise ship at the center
of a deadly outbreak, the U.N. health agency said. The ship then
departed Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board — isolated in their
cabins — and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear
evacuating three patients. Two arrived at Amsterdam's airport Wednesday
evening and were taken to separate hospitals.
Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World
Health Organization said. Of eight recorded cases, five were confirmed
by laboratory testing.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and
can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO,
whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.
Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who
may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which
departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several
remote Atlantic islands.
Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said
the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted
the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have
been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the
investigation ongoing.
Officials say those still on board show no symptoms
The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated Wednesday
were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a
65-year-old German national. WHO said testing in Senegal confirmed that
two of the evacuees were infected with hantavirus.
Two of the evacuees were in “serious condition,” Dutch ship operator
Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was
“closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius
ship on Saturday.
Upon arriving in Amsterdam, one of the evacuated patients was taken to a
specialized hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany; the other was taken to a
hospital in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship were
without symptoms. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or
four days, Spain’s health ministry said. Their arrival “won´t represent
any risk for the public,” the ministry said.
Still, the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said he
worried about the risk to the public and demanded a meeting with Prime
Minister Pedro Sánchez.
WHO expert says this is ‘not the next COVID’
Authorities said passengers tested positive for the Andes virus, a
species of hantavirus found in South America, primarily in Argentina and
Chile. The virus can spread between people, though that’s rare and only
through close contact, according to the WHO. The health agency has never
seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.
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Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from
the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde,
Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious
disease,” the WHO's top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said.
“Most people will never be exposed to this.”
Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van
Kerkhove said. Access to clinical care is important, she said,
because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory
distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. There is no
specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase
the chance of survival.
The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more,
she said.
The ship's itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic,
including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South
Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and
Ascension.
Officials rush to determine passenger's travel after leaving ship
Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger who tested
positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. South African
authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there
tested positive. One, a British man, was in intensive care; the
other collapsed and died in South Africa.
Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there
had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when
or how he traveled to Switzerland and how many other countries he
might have passed through.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a
precaution, a statement by the office said.
South Africa looks for people who had possible contact
At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first
hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to
South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and
died.
Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to
South Africa.
The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or
other locations.
The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out
of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact
with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested
negative for hantavirus.
British health officials said two passengers who flew home earlier
in the ship's journey are self-isolating but do not have symptoms.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said “a small number” of contacts of
the two are also self-isolating but also are not showing symptoms.
___
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires and Furtula from Amsterdam. Chinedu
Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mark Banchereau in
Dakar, Senegal; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin;
Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and
Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, contributed to this report.
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