UK advises self-isolation after hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship MV Hondius

Health officials moved to contain a rare hantavirus cluster on the cruise ship MV Hondius without treating it as a wider public emergency. Two British people who returned independently to the United Kingdom after being on the vessel were advised to self-isolate, while a small number of close contacts linked to the ship were also isolating and reporting no symptoms.

The UK Health Security Agency said the risk to the general public remained very low. It said the two returned Britons were not reporting symptoms, and that the remaining British nationals aboard the ship could be repatriated once MV Hondius docked at its next destination if they stayed well. The agency is working with the World Health Organization, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office and Border Force on tracing and public-health precautions.

The World Health Organization said MV Hondius carried 147 passengers and crew, including 88 passengers and 59 crew members from 23 nationalities. As of 4 May, the agency had identified seven cases in total: two laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections and five suspected cases. Among them were three deaths, one critically ill patient and three people with mild symptoms. Illness onset was recorded between 6 and 28 April.

The voyage began in Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April and continued through waters and ports that included Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island. The outbreak was reported to the WHO on 2 May, triggering an international public-health response. The agency said the global risk remained low, while noting that limited human-to-human transmission has been reported before with Andes virus, the strain implicated in this event.

Diplomatic and medical arrangements around the ship shifted as the case count became clearer. Spain agreed to let MV Hondius head to the Canary Islands after Cape Verde refused permission for the ship to dock on public-health grounds. Three patients were evacuated to the Netherlands for medical care, including one British national. The Foreign Office said it was working urgently to help British nationals on board get home safely with proper public-health protection.

For now, British officials are treating the episode as a tightly managed cross-border exposure event, not an outbreak that threatens the wider public. The priority is tracing contacts, isolating those at risk and moving passengers home under controlled conditions.