WHO Tracks Hantavirus Passengers from Cruise Ship in 12 Countries After Deadly Outbreak

Health officials in twelve countries are monitoring passengers who left the MV Hondius cruise ship before hantavirus cases surfaced there, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The list includes Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The virus aboard is the rare Andes strain, which spreads from human to human.

Two residents in Georgia and one in Virginia returned from the ship off Africa's west coast and face monitoring for the often deadly disease. All three remain in good health with no virus signs, according to health departments in those states. An unspecified number of California residents are also under watch, with none showing illness, the state health department said.

Three passengers have died: a couple from the Netherlands and a woman from Germany, the WHO reported. The Dutch husband died aboard the Hondius on April 11. Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship's owner, said Thursday that thirty guests, including six Americans, left the vessel at remote Saint Helena in the South Atlantic on April 24 and made their own way home.

"No samples were taken [from the man who died on board] and because his symptoms were similar to those of other respiratory diseases, hantavirus was not suspected," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Thursday press conference.

The Dutch wife, among those thirty, fell ill on an April 25 flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg. She boarded a KLM flight there briefly but could not continue due to her condition, the airline said. She died in South Africa the next day, the WHO said.

A British man showing symptoms was evacuated April 27 to South Africa for care. Oceanwide confirmed his hantavirus case on May 4; he remains hospitalized but is improving, per the WHO. South African authorities identified the Andes strain in him and the Dutch woman Wednesday. That strain, mainly from Argentina and Chile, spreads person-to-person, unlike rodent-linked variants.

"In previous outbreaks of Andes virus, transmission between people has been associated with close and prolonged contact, particularly among household members, intimate partners and people providing medical care," Tedros said. "That appears to be the case in the current situation."

Health experts call the pandemic risk low. "The pandemic risk from this outbreak is low," CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Céline Gounder said. "Hantavirus does not spread the way flu or COVID does. But this is exactly the kind of event that tests whether global health systems work."

Two Britons from the ship returned to the U.K. independently and are monitored with no symptoms; they were told to self-isolate, the U.K. Health Security Agency said. The public risk stays very low.

Another Saint Helena disembarkee tested positive for Andes hantavirus in Switzerland, the WHO said. Wednesday, three with suspected cases were airlifted from the ship: German and Dutch passengers plus a British crew member. The Dutch passenger and crew member, now in the Netherlands, are stable. The German, asymptomatic, went home.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has coordinated with partners since learning of the outbreak, acting director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said Wednesday.

The Hondius left Cape Verde late Wednesday, bound for the Canary Islands in three or four days. Tenerife Mayor José Domingo Regalado of Granadilla de Abona rejected its planned stop at Granadilla port. "I want to express my deep rejection of the arrival of the ship Hondius at the port of Granadilla," he said in a video. "What we ask is that action be taken, since they can be transferred to the nearest airport to their countries of origin so that they can quarantine and be treated by their health system if they require it." He called the plan lacking common sense.

Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo said Thursday the ship may anchor offshore but not dock.

Argentina's health ministry, noting the strain's origin there, offered technical aid. It circulates only in Chubut, Río Negro, Neuquén and southern Chile. The ship sailed from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego on April 1; no cases appear linked there since 1996 reporting began. No associated cases exist in Argentina.

The Dutch couple reached Argentina November 27, toured it, Chile and Uruguay, returned March 27 and boarded April 1. "Prior to boarding the ship, the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip, which included visits to sites where the species of rat that is known to carry Andes virus was present," Tedros said. The WHO works with Argentine authorities on their path; Argentina cooperates given its expertise.