Three patients with suspected hantavirus infections were evacuated from a cruise ship and are being flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday, said Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch company that operates the cruise ship.
The vessel is currently on the centre of a deadly outbreak and stays off Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board waiting to move to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Eight cases have been recorded, three of which have been confirmed by laboratory testing, based on the World Health Organization (WHO). Three people have died from the illness, which originates in rodents but can spread person-to-person in some cases.
There isn’t a specific treatment or cure for hantavirus, but early medical attention can increase the prospect of survival.
“We are able to confirm that the three individuals previously indicated as awaiting medical transfer have been successfully disembarked from m/v Hondius and are actually en route via medicalized aircraft to locations in a position to provide specialized care and appropriate medical screening,” Oceanwide Expeditions said in a press release on Wednesday.
“Two of the individuals remain in a serious condition. The third, while currently asymptomatic, was closely related to the person who passed away on board on 2 May 2026. The 2 symptomatic individuals haven’t tested positive for hantavirus at the moment,” the corporate added.
In partnership with the Dutch Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), Oceanwide Expeditions has expanded medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians, arriving Wednesday by plane from the Netherlands.
“This ensures that optimal medical care could be provided if mandatory, through the next stage of this evolving situation,” the corporate said.
Currently, the planned onward destination for the ship, MV Hondius, is the Canary Islands, based on Oceanwide Expeditions.
“Oceanwide Expeditions stays in close and continual discussion with relevant authorities regarding the precise point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and a precise timeline,” the corporate said, adding it’s “unable to verify the main points of onward travel for guests at this stage.”
“This depends on medical advice and the end result of stringent screening procedures. Close cooperation continues with local and international authorities, including the WHO, the RIVM, relevant embassies, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” they noted.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said that the organization “continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed.”
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for individuals who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X.
Ghebreyesus also noted that the general public health risk stays low at the moment.
Recent case confirmed in Switzerland
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has confirmed that a passenger who travelled on the primary leg of the voyage, from Ushuaia to St Helena, April 1 to 24, 2026, has tested positive for hantavirus and is currently being treated on the University Hospital Zurich.
“Oceanwide Expeditions is in touch with the relevant authorities regarding this development. All guests present on this voyage have been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions,” Ocean Expeditions said in a press release.
Get every day National news
Get every day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you may never miss the day’s top stories.
This brings the entire variety of confirmed hantavirus cases related to the voyage to a few.
The Swiss government confirmed that one person with a hantavirus infection is currently being treated on the University Hospital Zurich (USZ).
“The patient is male and returned to Switzerland after travelling on the cruise ship on which there have been plenty of hantavirus cases,” the Swiss government said in a press release. “The USZ is ready to cope with such cases, is in a position to look after the patient, and guarantee the security of staff and all patients. There’s currently no risk to the Swiss public.”
The Swiss government said that the person returned from a visit to South America together with his wife at the tip of April.
After the person noticed symptoms, he contacted his doctor and underwent further assessment on the University Hospital Zurich, the Swiss government said.
“There, he was immediately placed in isolation. A test that was carried out on the reference laboratory on the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) revealed a positive result for hantavirus. It concerns the Andes virus, a hantavirus that happens in South America,” the press release notes.
“Unlike the European hantaviruses, that are transmitted through excretions of infected rodents, for the American hantavirus variant, person-to-person transmission has also been documented in rare cases,” the Swiss government added. “Nevertheless, transmission only occurs through close contact. The FOPH subsequently considers the occurrence of further cases in Switzerland unlikely. The chance to the general public in Switzerland is low.”
The patient’s wife accompanied him on the trip but has not yet shown any symptoms and is self-isolating as a precaution.
“The cantonal authorities are currently investigating whether the patient got here into contact with other people through the infectious period,” the press release said. “Appropriate safety measures are in place on the USZ for the patient’s treatment. The USZ is the reference hospital for such diseases.”
The Swiss government said that hantavirus fever is rare in Switzerland and, lately, there have been between 0 and 6 reported cases a 12 months.
“Of those few cases, the overwhelming majority are attributable to infections acquired abroad,” the Swiss government said.
WHO confirms Andes strain of hantavirus
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the Andes strain of hantavirus, which could be transmitted from individual to individual, in passengers who were on the cruise ship, officials said Wednesday.
“The kind of virus on this outbreak has been confirmed as Andes hantavirus by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa and the Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland,” the WHO wrote in a post on X.
“The UN agency said that the victims can have been infected with the disease prior to boarding. It has reported eight cases of infection to date, including three confirmed as Andes hantavirus by laboratory testing,” the United Nations added in a news release.
The South African Department of Health said in a report, viewed by The Associated Press, that the data got here from tests performed on the passengers after they were faraway from the MV Hondius and flown to South Africa.
One in all the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care in a Johannesburg hospital. Tests were performed on the opposite passenger posthumously in South Africa.
On Tuesday, the WHO said that the one individual in intensive care in South Africa was “improving.”
Hantavirus is especially spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings, particularly when the fabric is disturbed and becomes airborne, posing a risk of inhalation, based on the federal government of Canada.
Individuals are typically exposed to hantavirus around their homes, cabins or sheds, especially when cleansing out enclosed spaces with little ventilation or exploring areas where there are mouse droppings.
People may also get the virus from infected mice, rats and other rodents.
“Because of this, it’s best to avoid close contact with rodents in Canada and abroad,” the Canadian government notes.
The Andes strain is present in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile, based on the WHO. So far, the Andes strain is the one kind of hantavirus during which human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, often through close contact, akin to by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.
Death rates vary based on which hantavirus causes the illness. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is fatal in about 35 per cent of individuals infected, while the death rate for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome varies from one per cent to fifteen per cent of patients, based on the CDC.
Since 1989, there have been 109 confirmed cases and 27 deaths in Canada on account of a hantavirus infection, the federal government of Canada reports.
“It can be crucial to emphasise that the epidemiological investigation of the present outbreak is ongoing, however the incontrovertible fact that some crew members (reportedly including the ship’s doctor) have grow to be sick strongly suggests that this outbreak involves the Andes strain of hantavirus (ANDV), which is the strain able to person-to-person spread,” Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, senior physician within the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mass General Brigham, told Global News.
“It might be very unusual for there to be a rodent infestation on board a contemporary cruise ship that might cause infection in such a lot of passengers and crew,” Kuritzkes added.
“Similarly unlikely that each one of the individuals who have grow to be sick were exposed to some rodent source on land. It’s almost certainly that one or two people were unknowingly exposed to hantavirus on land from a rodent source and subsequently transmitted to fellow passengers/crew.”
Kuritzkes notes that the earliest symptoms of hantavirus infection are fairly non-distinct including fever and malaise, that are typical symptoms of viral infections usually.
“Nevertheless, on this setting, an individual on the ship developing those symptoms must be considered potentially sick with hantavirus. Subsequently, development of respiratory distress characterizes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which progresses rapidly once it occurs,” Kuritzkes added.
The Spanish health ministry said in a press release Tuesday that the federal government has “accepted the request from the Government of the Netherlands to absorb the doctor from the MV Hondius, who’s in serious condition, and who might be transported to the Canary Islands in a hospital plane.”
In an update on Wednesday, the Spanish health ministry said that the ship’s doctor, “whose evacuation to the Canary Islands was initially planned, will even be transferred to the Netherlands following the advance in his health condition.”
The doctor and three patients infected with hantavirus were transferred via medicalized aircraft to the Netherlands.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Mónica García, Spain’s Minister of Health, reported on the situation arising from the hantavirus outbreak detected on the cruise ship.
García noted that she has been “in continuous contact” with the president of the Canary Islands government, Fernando Clavijo, while the Secretary of State for Health, the Directorate General of Public Health, Foreign Health and the technical teams “have worked in coordination with their regional and international counterparts to share information, assess risks, and prepare the health response.”
On the press conference, the minister explained that in a gathering between the technical teams of the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization on Tuesday, the Spanish health ministry agreed to send a team of international epidemiologists to review the health situation of the ship in Cape Verde.
“Subsequently, the WHO stated that Cape Verde doesn’t currently have the mandatory capabilities to independently perform all of the epidemiological, environmental and public health assessments required to administer a health incident of this nature,” the media release noted.
“In light of this case, the WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, formally requested the collaboration of the Spanish State to facilitate the arrival of the MV Hondius and to perform the mandatory health actions under international coordination,” the Spanish health ministry said.
The minister stressed that Spain’s actions respond “each to humanitarian principles and to international legal obligations derived from the WHO’s International Health Regulations, of which Spain is a State Party.”
García explained that energetic or symptomatic cases is not going to travel to the Canary Islands. They might be evacuated directly from Cape Verde via medical aircraft to high-isolation hospital units to receive specialized care.
Those continuing their journey to the Canary Islands are passengers without symptoms, whose arrival is predicted inside a period of between 72 hours and 96 hours, García said.
“The disembarkation might be carried out through controlled health circuits, with direct transfer from the port to the airport and subsequent return to their countries of origin, avoiding in any respect times transit through spaces open to the final population,” she noted.
This comes after the Spanish archipelago’s leader, Fernando Clavijo, said he was against the move and requested an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
—With files from The Associated Press