Three cruisegoers are dead after an outbreak of hantavirus aboard a Dutch passenger ship in the Atlantic.
The outbreak occurred on the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship that departed Argentina several weeks ago, and is currently off the coast of Cape Verde.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, issued a statement that it is currently experiencing a “serious medical situation.”
“WHO [World Health Organization] is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean,” the organization said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.
“To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases. Of the six affected individuals, three have died and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa.”
There appear to have been about 150 people on board the ship at the time of the outbreak.
Hantavirus is a rare but extremely serious viral condition that generally passes to humans via rat urine or feces.
The virus has a mortality rate of between 30% and 50%, which makes it one of the most dangerous viruses in the world—many times more dangerous than COVID-19.
“While rare, hantavirus may spread between people, and can lead to severe respiratory illness and requires careful patient monitoring, support and response,” the WHO wrote.
Generally, hantavirus does not pass from human to human, but some strains, including one in South America known as the Andes virus, has done so.
The first confirmed victim was a 70-year-old South African man.
His body was removed from the ship on the British territory of Saint Helena.
His wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa while trying to take a flight home to the Netherlands, and she later died in hospital.
