Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship prompts passenger tracing in St. Helena

St. Helena was tracing cruise passengers after two travelers with minor symptoms came ashore from the MV Hondius, a stop that raised concern not just about illness on board but about where potentially exposed people went next. Dutch officials said about 40 passengers, including the wife of a Dutch man who died, had already disembarked on the South Atlantic island after the first passenger death.

The St. Helena government said the expedition vessel visited the island between April 22 and April 24, 2026, and that the two symptomatic passengers may have had contact with members of the local community. Island officials said there were no identified cases on St. Helena and that the risk to the wider community was low, but they were working with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency and other international partners on risk-based contact tracing and precautionary self-isolation for some travelers.

The World Health Organization said it was notified on May 2 about a cluster of severe respiratory illness aboard the Dutch-flagged ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions. The vessel carried 147 people in total, including 88 passengers and 59 crew members from 23 nationalities. As of May 4, the agency said there were seven cases tied to the ship, two laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections and five suspected cases, including three deaths, one critically ill patient and three people with mild symptoms. Illness onset ranged from April 6 to April 28 and included fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.

The ship had departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and made a series of South Atlantic and Antarctic stops, including South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island. Health authorities have not identified the source of infection. Hantavirus is usually acquired through exposure to infected rodents or their droppings, urine or saliva, though the agency said limited human-to-human transmission has been reported previously for Andes virus, the strain linked to the outbreak.

Oceanwide Expeditions said on May 5 that the MV Hondius remained off the coast of Cape Verde, two crew members still needed urgent medical care and preparations for medical evacuation were underway. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on May 6 it was closely monitoring the situation involving U.S. travelers, while the U.S. Department of State coordinated the response with health authorities. New Zealand’s foreign ministry said it was aware of a New Zealander onboard and was in contact with that traveler, underscoring how the outbreak has become a cross-border tracing exercise far beyond the ship itself.