Three people have died and several others are seriously ill following a suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged polar cruise ship currently anchored off the coast of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, an island archipelago in the central Atlantic. The World Health Organization confirmed it was investigating the outbreak on Sunday, with one case laboratory-confirmed and five additional suspected cases among the 149 passengers and crew representing 23 nationalities aboard the 107-metre vessel.
The ship departed Ushuaia, a port city at the southern tip of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province, on 20 March on a multi-week Atlantic voyage that included stops at the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the remote British overseas territory of Saint Helena. The first victim, a 70-year-old Dutch man, died on 11 April; his body was disembarked at Saint Helena on 24 April. His 69-year-old wife, who accompanied the repatriation, later fell ill and died at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. A German national died on 2 May, and a 69-year-old British passenger who became seriously ill on 27 April remains in critical but stable condition in intensive care in Johannesburg, where hantavirus has been confirmed in his case. Two crew members — one British, one Dutch — have also developed acute respiratory symptoms and require urgent medical care, though hantavirus has not yet been confirmed in either.
Hantavirus is a rare but potentially fatal illness spread primarily through contact with the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents such as mice and rats. It is not easily transmitted between people, though rare human-to-human transmission has been documented. The disease can cause two main syndromes: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which attacks the lungs and carries a fatality rate of around 38%, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which primarily affects the kidneys. There is no specific antiviral treatment; care is supportive, involving oxygen therapy, mechanical ventilation and, in some cases, dialysis. Globally, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 infections occur each year. The virus made international headlines last year when Betsy Arakawa, wife of Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.
How the virus reached those aboard the Hondius remains under investigation. Dutch public health authorities suggested two main possibilities: rodents may have boarded the ship with cargo and infected passengers through contaminated surfaces, or passengers may have been exposed during shore excursions in South America. The origin is complicated by the ship's long itinerary and the diverse nationalities of those onboard. Cape Verde's health authorities have refused to allow the vessel to dock, citing the need to protect the local population, and are coordinating with Dutch and British authorities on a possible air medical evacuation. The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said it is considering sailing to Las Palmas or Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, where full medical screening and disembarkation could take place.
The WHO said the risk to the general public remains low and that there is no need for travel restrictions or panic. South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases has begun contact tracing around Johannesburg. Passengers onboard have been placed under strict isolation protocols and hygiene measures. One American travel blogger on the ship, Jake Rosmarin, captured the human toll of the uncertainty in an emotional video posted to social media. "We're not just headlines: we are people," he said. "People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home."