Spanish passengers begin leaving MV Hondius after deadly hantavirus outbreak

Spanish passengers began leaving the MV Hondius as health teams turned a deadly shipboard hantavirus outbreak into a live test of how quickly the cruise industry and European authorities can contain a contagious disease in international waters.

The Dutch-flagged vessel anchored off Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands after its route was diverted with 147 passengers and crew aboard. The World Health Organization said the outbreak had produced eight reported cases, including three deaths, and that five of those cases had been confirmed as hantavirus. The agency identified the virus on board as the Andes strain and said the public health risk to people on Tenerife was low.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus traveled to Tenerife to oversee the disembarkation, signaling how seriously the case was being treated by global health officials. Tedros said the situation was not another COVID-19 crisis and said the organization was preparing step-by-step guidance for a safe and respectful evacuation and onward travel, an acknowledgment that the main challenge was no longer only clinical care but coordination under pressure.

The Spanish government said passengers and selected crew would be medically screened before being repatriated on evacuation flights. Spanish authorities chose La Candelaria University Hospital in Tenerife to handle anyone found infected, while some travelers and crew were to be moved by small boats or launch boats for immediate flights home. The United States also arranged transport for American passengers to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska in Omaha.

The response has exposed friction over speed and control. Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo objected to the docking plan and asked for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, while Madrid said it was acting in line with WHO guidance, international law and humanitarian principles. The dispute underscored the pressure on national and regional authorities when an outbreak hits a ship carrying foreign passengers into a densely monitored port.

Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the ship, said 114 guests boarded in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, 2026. Thirty guests had already disembarked at Saint Helena on April 24, including the body of a passenger who died on April 11. The WHO recommended that anyone removed from the ship remain isolated for 42 days from the last point of exposure, a reminder that even after the evacuation begins, the public health clock keeps running.