Dozens Tracked After Hantavirus Deaths on Cruise Ship Between Continents

Health officials are tracking passengers in at least 12 countries after three people died on the MV Hondius, an expedition cruise ship that left Ushuaia, Argentina, with 114 guests aboard and then scattered travelers across multiple continents. The case has become a public-health tracing operation as much as an outbreak response, with investigators trying to follow passengers who had already flown home, moved on to other trips or continued through transit hubs before the danger was clear.

The World Health Organization said the cluster was first reported to it on May 2, and by May 4 it had identified seven cases among passengers and crew, including two laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections, five suspected cases, three deaths, one critically ill patient and three people with mild symptoms. It later said eight cases had been reported, including three deaths, and that five of the eight had been confirmed as hantavirus. Illness onset was reported between April 6 and April 28, with fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, rapid progression to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.

That timing explains why the response has crossed borders so quickly. Oceanwide Expeditions said 30 guests disembarked at Saint Helena on April 24, including the body of the passenger who died on board on April 11. Health authorities in Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States are now monitoring passengers or contacts tied to the ship. U.S. officials are watching Americans in at least five states.

The disease itself is what makes the episode unusual. Hantavirus is usually linked to rodent exposure, but the World Health Organization said the Andean strain involved in some shipboard cases can, in rare cases, spread from person to person. That is why officials are treating this as a contact-tracing challenge rather than a flu-like cruise outbreak. The WHO has also said the public risk is low and that this is not the start of another COVID-style pandemic, even as it develops step-by-step guidance for safe and respectful disembarkation and onward travel.

Authorities on Saint Helena said they became aware of the situation after the vessel’s visit from April 22 to 24 and are working with the UK Health Security Agency and international partners. The local government first alerted the public on May 4. For health officials, the immediate task is not to stop a global wave of illness, but to find the people who may have shared air, time and close contact with infected passengers before the ship’s secret spread became visible.