A cruise ship is waiting for help after 3 people died in a suspected
hantavirus outbreak
[May 05, 2026]
By GERALD IMRAY
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A cruise ship with nearly 150 people
aboard was waiting for help off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic
Ocean on Monday after three passengers died and at least three other
people were left seriously ill in a suspected outbreak of the rare
hantavirus, according to the World Health Organization and the ship's
operator.
The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina
to Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, had
requested help from local health authorities after making its way to the
island of Cape Verde, off the West Africa coast. But no one has been
allowed to disembark, Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions
said.
Cape Verde's Health Ministry said Monday that for now, it will not allow
the ship to dock because of public health concerns and that it would
stay in open waters close to shore.
Hantavirus is a rodent-borne illness spread by contact with rodents or
their urine, saliva or droppings. WHO says that while it is rare,
hantavirus may spread between people.
It was unclear how an outbreak could have started, and WHO said it was
investigating while working to coordinate the evacuation of two sick
crew members. Another sick person — a British man evacuated to South
Africa on April 27 — tested positive for the virus, authorities said. He
is in critical condition and isolated in intensive care, health
officials said.
The body of one of the passengers who died — a German — remains on the
ship, according to an Oceanwide Expeditions statement. A 70-year-old
Dutch man died onboard April 11, and his 69-year-old wife died later in
South Africa after leaving the ship, officials said. Her blood later
tested positive for the virus, making two confirmed cases, South
Africa's health minister said.
Among the 87 remaining passengers, 17 are Americans, 19 are from the
U.K. and 13 from Spain, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. Sixty-one
crew members also are onboard.
Cruise operator says 2 ill crew members urgently need care
Two sick crew members — one British, one Dutch — have respiratory
symptoms and need urgent medical care, Oceanwide said in its statement.
Cape Verde has sent a medical team of two doctors, a nurse and a
laboratory specialist to the ship over three trips, said Dr. Ann
Lindstrand, a WHO official in Cape Verde.
She told The Associated Press in an interview that they were planning
for medical evacuations, in which passengers would be taken from the
ship via ambulance to an airport.
“It’s been very tricky for Cape Verdean authorities,” Lindstrand said.
“What they have to deal with is a public health event. And of course,
they have been thinking about the protection of the population here.”
Oceanwide said it would consider moving to one of the Spanish islands —
Tenerife or the port of Las Palmas — if it can't evacuate passengers in
Cape Verde.
WHO said it was working with local authorities and Oceanwide on a “full
public health risk assessment.”
“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory
testing, and epidemiological investigations,” WHO said. “Medical care
and support are being provided to passengers and crew.”
Lindstrand told AP there was a possible new case on the ship, in a
person showing mild fever symptoms, but health workers were still
assessing.
The cruise started in Argentina
The ship left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1, according to
Argentine provincial authorities. Health officials there said they
confirmed no passengers had hantavirus symptoms when the Hondius
departed.
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A view of the m/v Hondius Cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia,
Cape Verde, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
 But because symptoms can appear up
to eight weeks after exposure, “the passengers could have been
incubating the disease if they acquired it within the country or
elsewhere in the world,” Juan Facundo Petrina, director of
epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, told AP in an interview
from Ushuaia.
He noted that the province hasn't historically seen hantavirus
cases, but infections have broken out in other Argentine provinces,
leading to 28 deaths nationwide last year, according to the health
ministry.
For the rest of the Hondius' trip, Oceanwide Expeditions didn’t
specify an itinerary. The company advertises 33-night or 43-night
“Atlantic Odyssey” cruises on the vessel.
It has 80 cabins and a capacity of 170 passengers, and it typically
travels with about 70 crew members, including a doctor, the company
said.
The Dutch man was the first victim, and he presented with fever,
headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, officials said. His body was
taken off the vessel nearly two weeks later on the British territory
of Saint Helena, some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) off the African
coast and was awaiting repatriation.
His wife was transferred to South Africa; she collapsed at a
Johannesburg airport and died at a hospital, the South African
Department of Health said. On Monday, South African Health Minister
Aaron Motsoaledi told national broadcaster SABC that her blood was
tested posthumously, with a positive hantavirus result.
The ship sailed on to Ascension Island, an isolated Atlantic outpost
about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the north, where the sick
British man was taken off the ship and evacuated April 27 to South
Africa.
South African officials have started contact tracing but say
there's no need to panic
There was no information from authorities on a possible source of
the suspected outbreak. A previous hantavirus outbreak in southern
Argentina in 2019 killed at least nine people. It prompted a judge
to order dozens of residents of a remote town to stay in their homes
for 30 days to halt the spread.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases was
conducting contact tracing to identify whether people were exposed
to infected cruise passengers. The 69-year-old woman who died was
trying to catch a flight home to the Netherlands at Johannesburg’s
main international airport, one of Africa's busiest, when she
collapsed.
But the health department urged people not to panic, saying WHO was
“coordinating a multicountry response with all affected islands and
countries to contain further spread of the disease.”
Hantavirus has no specific treatment or cure, but early medical
attention can increase chances of survival.
“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between
people,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe,
said in a statement Monday. “The risk to the wider public remains
low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”
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AP journalists Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Michelle
Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg; Isabel DeBre in Buenos
Aires, Argentina; and Annie Risemberg and Mark Banchereau in Dakar,
Senegal contributed.
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