MAY 5, 2026
Three Passengers Dead, Ship Stranded Off Cape Verde as WHO Investigates Hantavirus Outbreak on MV Hondius
Three passengers aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship have died and at least four others are ill in what health officials have identified as a hantavirus outbreak, with two cases confirmed through laboratory testing. The Dutch vessel, carrying approximately 150 passengers and crew, departed Argentina on April 1 and has been anchored off Cape Verde after no port has allowed it to dock. The World Health Organization is coordinating a multi-country response and said the public risk remains low.
The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, set out from Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1 on a weeks-long polar and Atlantic cruise. A 70-year-old Dutch man was the first to die, on April 11, presenting with fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, according to health officials. His body was removed from the ship nearly two weeks later at the British territory of Saint Helena, approximately 1,200 miles off the African coast.
His 69-year-old wife was transferred separately by plane to South Africa, where she collapsed at Johannesburg's main international airport and died at a hospital on April 26, according to WHO and South Africa's Department of Health. South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stated that her blood was tested posthumously and returned a positive hantavirus result. A sick British man was evacuated from the ship at Ascension Island on April 27 and transported to South Africa, where he remained in intensive care in critical condition. The body of a third deceased passenger — described as German — remained on board the ship, according to an Oceanwide Expeditions statement.
WHO said Tuesday it was tracking seven cases in all: three deaths, one critically ill passenger previously evacuated, and three aboard the ship showing mild symptoms. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said officials were investigating possible human-to-human transmission and that the first infected person was suspected to have contracted the virus before boarding. She also said officials had been told there were no rats on board. Argentine provincial health officials confirmed that no passengers showed hantavirus symptoms when the ship departed, but noted that symptoms can appear up to eight weeks after exposure.