{"id":331331,"date":"2026-05-08T17:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=331331"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:44:34","slug":"two-vials-of-hantavirus-went-missing-from-lab-two-years-ago-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/two-vials-of-hantavirus-went-missing-from-lab-two-years-ago-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Two vials of hantavirus went missing from lab two years ago | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Some vials of hantavirus disappeared in 2024 (Picture: Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two vials of hantavirus went missing from an Australian lab two years before the recent outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius.<\/p>\n<p>Out of the 300 vials that went missing in 2024, two contained the hantavirus, which causes the condition that has left three dead within the last two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>On the time, it was thought the disappearance happened when the vials were being transferred to a brand new freezer.<\/p>\n<p>But an investigation found they were probably destroyed somewhat than stolen.The vials usually are not connected with probably the most recent outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>The disease has made headlines in recent days after multiple passengers aboard the cruise ship contracted symptoms of the illness.<\/p>\n<p>Follow our hantavirus live blog for the newest news on the outbreak<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the newest stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p>Start your day informed with Metro&#8217;s <strong>News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get <strong>Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A husband and wife, each 69, had developed the rodent-borne virus and brought it aboard the ship after visiting town of Ushuaia,\u00a0Argentina.<\/p>\n<p>The pair, from\u00a0the Netherlands, are believed to have visited a landfill site during a birdwatching trip and could have been exposed to rodents carrying the deadly infection.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@metrouk\/video\/7637174477767396630\" data-video-id=\"7637174477767396630\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" style=\"max-width:605px; min-width:325px;\">\n<section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@metrouk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@metrouk?refer=embed\">@metrouk<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Argentine authorities say a Dutch couple, who later died, could have caught the virus during a birdwatching trip near Ushuaia argentina, where they visited a landfill and were potentially exposed to infected rodents before boarding the ship. The virus is the Andes strain, which is the one hantavirus strain known to spread between humans through close contact. The WHO says the general risk stays low, however the situation continues to be being closely monitored. \ud83c\udfa5 @zofia_louise <a title=\"hantavirus\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/hantavirus?refer=embed\">#hantavirus<\/a> <a title=\"virus\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/virus?refer=embed\">#virus<\/a> <a title=\"worldhealthorganization\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/worldhealthorganization?refer=embed\">#worldhealthorganization<\/a> <a title=\"worldnews\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/worldnews?refer=embed\">#worldnews<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c original sound - Metro - Metro\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-Metro-7637174496323717910?refer=embed\">\u266c original sound \u2013 Metro \u2013 Metro<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The husband died on April 11 after\u00a0reporting flu-like symptoms, which he suffered for five days. His body was taken ashore at Saint Helena on April 24, where his wife also disembarked.<\/p>\n<p>She then fell in poor health and died in Johannesburg on April 26. A\u00a0German\u00a0national also died on the ship on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>A British crew member who was evacuated from the ship with symptoms of the virus has been named as\u00a0Martin Anstree.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.metro.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/2026\/05_MAY\/260507_Hantavirus_Symptoms_Timeline\/index.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\" class=\"metro-iframe iframe-autoheight \" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" name=\"69fdcca13212b\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The 56-year-old is a former police officer turned wildlife photographer and was on board as an authority birdwatching guide.<\/p>\n<p>He told\u00a0Sky News\u00a0from the hospital within the Netherlands where he&#8217;s receiving treatment: \u2018I\u2019m doing OK. I\u2019m not feeling too bad. There are still a number of tests to be done.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I do not know how long I\u2019ll be within the hospital for. I\u2019m in isolation in the intervening time.\u2019<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tWhat number of Brits have been affected by hantavirus?\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Three British nationals are confirmed or suspected of getting hantavirus<\/li>\n<li>One is being treated in South Africa, one is being treated within the Netherlands and the opposite is being treated in Trista da Cunha<\/li>\n<li>Seven Brits disembarked the ship at St Helena following the primary death. 4 remain there and have been positioned<\/li>\n<li>Two Brits who disembarked have been positioned within the UK and are self-isolating<\/li>\n<li>One person has not yet been traced<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>His wife Nicola told the Telegraph it had been \u2018a really traumatic few days\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u2018He\u2019s relieved to be off the ship. He had it quite mild, then it got a bit more serious, and now he\u2019s stable again.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The fear with this virus is it might deteriorate in a short time, so it\u2019s been a bit up and down for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I don\u2019t imagine he\u2019s in imminent danger now, however it was horrible.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: CPR instructor has real life heart attack while pretending to have one<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Mum shares \u2018unreal\u2019 moment she met transplant recipient who received daughter\u2019s hand<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Moment hantavirus captain tells passengers cruise is \u2018not infectious\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--news\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>News Updates<\/h4>\n<p>Stay on top of the headlines with every day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some vials of hantavirus disappeared in 2024 (Picture: Reuters) Two vials of hantavirus went missing from an Australian lab two years before the recent outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius. Out of the 300 vials that went missing in 2024, two contained the hantavirus, which causes the condition that has left three dead within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[27338,7464,3417,395,44511,813,1303],"class_list":["post-331331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-hantavirus","tag-lab","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-vials","tag-world","tag-years"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331334,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331331\/revisions\/331334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}