What to Know About the Hantavirus Outbreak on an Atlantic Cruise Ship

Officials are investigating an outbreak of hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents, aboard a cruise ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean.

Three passengers aboard the MV Hondius have died and four other people have been sickened — one critically — after showing symptoms of the rare disease, according to the World Health Organization. On Monday, the vessel’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said that hantavirus has been confirmed in two of the cases.

One person confirmed to have the virus was in critical condition and receiving intensive care in South Africa, according to officials. The other confirmed case was a Dutch woman who died in South Africa.

Among the people with the illness were two crew members who were still on the ship, Oceanwide said on Monday. Oceanwide said that one of them had severe symptoms.

The vessel was anchored early Tuesday off the port of Praia, in the West African nation of Cape Verde, but had not docked. Passengers have not received permission by local officials to disembark, Oceanwide said. It was unclear where or when they could get off the ship.

Here’s what to know:

Three people have died but the risk to the wider public is low.

The W.H.O. has said that there was no need for panic.

“Based on the current information, including how hantavirus spreads, W.H.O. assesses the risk to the global population from this event as low,” the agency reiterated on social media on Tuesday.

The three people who died were a Dutch couple and a German citizen, according to Oceanwide.

The first fatality was a 70-year-old Dutch man who died on board the ship on April 11. Nearly two weeks later, on April 24, his body was taken off the ship at St. Helena, a British island territory in the South Atlantic, to be repatriated to the Netherlands, Oceanwide said. The man had experienced a fever, a headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea. As of Monday night, the cause of his death was still unclear, according to Oceanwide.

The man’s 69-year-old wife became ill after disembarking from the ship with his body, and collapsed at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, while attempting to fly home to the Netherlands. She was taken to a health facility, where she died. Oceanwide said on Monday that she was confirmed to have had a variant of the hantavirus.

Then, on May 2, a German passenger died aboard the ship, according to Oceanwide, which said the cause of death was still unclear.

A British citizen fell ill during the voyage between St. Helena and Ascension Island, another British territory in the South Atlantic, and was in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday. His laboratory results had come back positive for hantavirus, said Foster Mohale, a spokesman for the National Department of Health in South Africa. The person’s condition “was improving,” the W.H.O. said Tuesday.

Oceanwide said that local officials were “actively preparing a medical evacuation” of the two symptomatic crew members — one Dutch, one British — who remained on board.

Dr. Ann Lindstrand, a W.H.O. official in Cape Verde, said in an email that a previously suspected new case on the ship was asymptomatic on Monday evening.

The vessel was carrying around 150 people, including 88 passengers and 61 crew members, according to Oceanwide. Seventeen of the passengers are Americans. Other passengers include people from Spain, France and the Philippines. The company says the ship can hold as many as 170 people in its 80 cabins.

The ship had departed from Argentina and was headed for the Canary Islands.

The Dutch-registered MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, around three weeks ago for the Canary Islands, Mr. Mohale said. The Argentine health authorities in the southern province of Tierra del Fuego, from which the ship departed, said there were no known cases of hantavirus in the area.

Cape Verde was a scheduled stop on the cruise’s itinerary before its planned final destination, Mr. Mohale said. As of Monday morning, Cape Verde authorities had not authorized passengers to disembark.

Dr. Lindstrand said a medical team, including two doctors, a nurse and a laboratory specialist, had been sent to the ship. The remaining two symptomatic patients were stable and not in a critical state, Dr. Lindstrand said. “They will hopefully be evacuated tomorrow with an airplane that should be arriving by midnight tonight,” she said in an email on Tuesday.

The ship’s itinerary included stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension, Mr. Mohale said.

Oceanwide said on Monday that it was considering sailing to Las Palmas or Tenerife, in Spain, as a “gateway for disembarkation, where further medical screening and handling could take place.”

Oceanwide Expeditions is a Dutch-based cruise operator that has specialized in small-vessel polar expeditions for more than 30 years. The MV Hondius, which has been sailing since 2019, has not previously been detained in port for health or safety issues, according to the European Maritime Safety Agency, which collects data on ship safety.

The hantavirus is a rare disease that is often carried by rodents.

Hantavirus is a rare disease typically contracted when people breathe in particles of dried droppings or urine from infected rodents.

It is rare for the disease to spread among people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Andes virus, primarily found in South America, is the only hantavirus known to spread between people. The disease can result in severe illness and often death, according to the C.D.C., which cited a case fatality rate of up to 15 percent in Asia and Europe and up to 50 percent in the Americas.

From 1993 to 2022, there were 864 recorded cases of the disease in the United States, according to the C.D.C. Last year, Betsy Arakawa, the wife of the actor Gene Hackman, died from the effects of the virus.

Early symptoms are flulike, including fever, chills, body aches and headaches. As the illness progresses, it can cause shortness of breath and, in severe instances, lung or heart failure. There is no specific treatment for the virus, but symptoms can be treated with intubation, oxygen therapy, fluid replacement and medication, according to the C.D.C.

Cruise ships are a prime spot for infections to spread.

Hantavirus is rarely associated with cruise ships, but other viruses, like the norovirus, can spread much more frequently at sea.

In March 2025, more than 230 passengers and crew members got sick during a norovirus outbreak aboard a monthlong cruise from England to the Eastern Caribbean, according to the C.D.C. Norovirus, a gastrointestinal illness, thrives in the confined quarters of a ship. It spreads through person-to-person contact or through contaminated food or water.

According to the C.D.C., the most common outbreaks at sea involve gastrointestinal illnesses or respiratory infections such as Covid and influenza.

Emma Bubola, Ceylan Yeğinsu, Lynsey Chutel and Alexandra E. Petri contributed reporting.