The World Health Organization first heard about it on 2 May 2026. The notification came from the United Kingdom’s national contact point under the International Health Regulations and it concerned a Dutch-flagged expedition ship, the M/V Hondius, where passengers had fallen severely ill with breathing problems. Two had already died. A third was critically ill.
By the following day, 3 May, the toll was three dead. The WHO and South Africa’s health department said so on the Sunday, and the WHO stated that one case of hantavirus infection had been confirmed in the laboratory and five more were suspected. Half of the six had died, and another patient was in a South African intensive care unit.
The ship and the victims
The Hondius is run by the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions and can carry about 170 passengers with 70 crew. South African authorities put the number of tourists aboard at around 150. The ship had left Argentina roughly three weeks earlier on a polar itinerary that took in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, and it was heading for Spain’s Canary Islands by way of Cape Verde. Ship-tracking sites placed it just off Praia, the Cape Verdean capital, that Sunday night.
Two of the dead were a Dutch couple, he 70 and she 69. South Africa’s health ministry said the husband fell ill on the ship and died on Saint Helena, and that his wife died in Kempton Park, in hospital. Also ill was a British man of 69, who was taken to a private clinic in Johannesburg and tested positive. The BBC later reported that a German woman had died aboard on 2 May.
The operator said the vessel lacked permission from Cape Verdean authorities to land people needing medical care. It said Dutch authorities had agreed to lead the repatriation of two symptomatic crew members and the body of the deceased. Oceanwide Expeditions called getting the two sick people expedited care its priority. By 7 May the ship was on its way to the Canary Islands after three days anchored near Cape Verde, and three evacuees, a British, a Dutch and a German national, had been flown out.
What the WHO’s later count showed
The virus was identified as Andes hantavirus. In its fourth Disease Outbreak News report, the WHO gave the position as of 27 May: 13 cases, including three deaths, a case fatality ratio of 23%. Eleven were confirmed in the laboratory and two were probable. All were passengers or crew. Since 13 May three more confirmed cases had been reported, in people from Canada, Spain and the Netherlands, and an inconclusive case in the United States tested negative and was removed from the count.
Hantavirus is usually caught from the urine or faeces of infected rodents. Per the WHO, person-to-person spread is rare but can occur, and no specific treatment or cure exists, although early medical care raises the odds of survival. Because incubation can last up to six weeks, the WHO said new cases were not unexpected until six weeks had passed since the last exposure. Its assessment of the danger to the world’s population was low.
Sources
- Three passengers dead after suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship | Cape Verde | The Guardian
- Suspected Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship kills 3 — WHO
- Hantavirus outbreak linked to cruise ship travel, Multi-locations
- Hantavirus-hit cruise ship on way to Canary Islands after three evacuated
