A Dutch couple who died from hantavirus after sailing on a doomed cruise ship are reportedly believed to have caught the illness while birdwatching.
Argentine officials revealed their government’s leading theory is that the 2 MV Hondius passengers carried the rat-virus on board after birdwatching in the town of Ushuaia, Associated Press reports.
The pair, each 69, visited a landfill site through the trip and can have been exposed to rodents carrying the deadly infection.
They then boarded the cruise ship on April 1 2026 and the husband developed flu-like symptoms five days later.
He died on April 11 and his body went ashore at Saint Helena on April 24 alongside his wife. She then fell sick and died in Johannesburg on April 26.
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The family of the couple on the centre of the outbreak said: ‘We cannot yet comprehend that we now have to miss them. We wish to bring them home in peace and remember them.’
The WHO has also said it has been tracing people on the lady’s flight between the Saint Helena and Johannesburg. ‘Contact tracing for passengers on the flight has been initiated,’ WHO said in an announcement.
There had been 82 passengers and 6 crew onboard the April 25 flight, South African-based carrier Airlink told AFP.
Argentine authorities have said Ushuaia and surrounding Tierra del Fuego province had never recorded a hantavirus case.
A German national also died on the ship on May 2 and it’s unclear in the event that they were infected.
More cases of hantavirus have now emerged on board the posh cruise liner because it travelled towards Cape Verde.
Five individuals are confirmed to have caught the virus, with three more suspected to be infected.
A British national is intensive care in South Africa after he was evacuated from the ship at the tip of April.
Swiss authorities have also confirmed a case of hantavirus from a passenger on the primary leg of the trip, who presented to hospital in Zurich after receiving an email concerning the outbreak.
Three individuals, including the British ship doctor, were medically evacuated from the cruise ship on Wednesday.
Two are in a serious condition and are confirmed to have the virus, while a 3rd is asymptomatic but was a detailed contact of the German national who died on May 2.
Hantavirus is often only spread by exposure to rodent urine, feces or saliva, however the World Health Organisation believes that human-to-human transmission took place on MV Hondius.
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What’s hantavirus?
Hantaviruses are a family of rodent-bourne viruses, with each strain tied to a particular host species.
It’s spread when people come into contact with infected droppings, saliva, urine or nesting materials, but is extremely rare, and infrequently passed from individual to individual.
If caught, hantavirus can result in two fundamental illnesses, certainly one of which affects the lungs (Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS) and the opposite which affects the kidneys (Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or HFRS).
The incubation period for this illness is mostly two to 4 weeks, in keeping with the federal government, but can range from as little as two days to so long as eight weeks.
What are the symptoms?
Early symptoms of hantavirus are just like the flu, and include headaches, dizziness, chills in addition to abdominal problems like diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea.
If it progresses into Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, patients can experience headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
In the event you develop Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, initial symptoms will include intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever or chills, nausea, and blurred vision.
If the disease progresses, later symptoms include low blood pressure, acute shock (lack of blood flow), internal bleeding, and acute kidney failure, in keeping with the CDC.
Hantavirus might be fatal, so it’s essential to control symptoms if you happen to consider you’ve been exposed. There’s currently no cure for the disease.
The evacuation means the ship can now proceed on its three-day journey to the Canary Islands after Spanish authorities gave permission for the boat to dock.
Around 150 guests and crew – including 23 British nationals – initially remained on the liner after the rat-related virus outbreak took hold.
In keeping with WHO, the outbreak continues to pose a low risk to public health.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group on the University of Oxford, added that the danger of hantavirus spreading from the outbreak is ‘essentially zero’.
It’s because the Andes virus – the variant which is known to have caused the outbreak – is ‘known very rarely to spread between individuals with close contact’.
‘It means it is extremely easy to isolate people who find themselves unwell and to follow quarantine and so forth to avoid spread to other people,’ he added.
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