Hantavirus Kills Three on Antarctic Cruise Ship MV Hondius

A deadly hantavirus outbreak struck passengers on the MV Hondius, an Antarctic cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions. The incident has led to three deaths and eight reported cases as of May 8, according to the World Health Organization.

The Dutch vessel left Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina, on April 1. It planned stops in Antarctica and remote South Atlantic islands.

On April 6, a 70-year-old Dutch male passenger fell ill with fever, headache and mild diarrhea. He and his wife had toured Ushuaia and other areas of Argentina and Chile before boarding, the World Health Organization said.

The man developed respiratory distress and died on board April 11. The cruise company said the cause was not immediately known.

Six passengers joined the cruise April 15 at Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island group. The Dutch man's body stayed on the ship.

On April 24 at St. Helena, officials removed the body. The Dutch man's wife, who had symptoms, left with more than two dozen other passengers. The stop ended the cruise for some travelers, the Associated Press reported.

The Dutch woman took a commercial flight April 25 from St. Helena to South Africa with 88 passengers and crew.

She collapsed April 26 at a South African airport while trying to board a flight home and later died.

After leaving St. Helena April 27, a British man fell ill. He was evacuated to South Africa and put in intensive care with high fever, shortness of breath and pneumonia symptoms.

A German woman became sick April 28 on the MV Hondius as it sailed toward Cape Verde off Africa's west coast.

The German woman died May 2, nearly a month after the first illness. She was the third fatality. The British man in South Africa tested positive for hantavirus.

The World Health Organization said May 3 it was probing a suspected hantavirus outbreak linked to the ship, then off Cape Verde.

South African officials confirmed May 4 that the Dutch woman who died at the airport had hantavirus, based on a posthumous test prompted by the British man's result. The World Health Organization declared it an outbreak.

Cape Verde authorities May 5 denied the ship's requests to evacuate more sick people or let passengers and crew off. They sent health workers aboard for aid. Two crew members, including the ship doctor, got seriously ill; another went under monitoring.

On May 6, three people—two with confirmed hantavirus—were evacuated to European hospitals. The ship set course for Spain's Canary Islands after approval. Swiss officials reported another confirmed case in a man who left at St. Helena, for a total of five infections. South African and Swiss authorities identified the strain as Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to spread person to person. It comes from South America.

Health officials in Switzerland, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Singapore, South Africa and elsewhere isolated ex-passengers May 7 and traced contacts.

The ship neared Tenerife in the Canary Islands May 8. Spanish authorities planned screening, quarantine or flights home. Officials on Tristan da Cunha hospitalized a resident possibly exposed to cruise passengers.