THE MIND OF THE PEOPLE – Health authorities from various countries are racing to trace dozens of passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship who left the ship before isolation measures were implemented.
According to The Guardian, it was revealed for the first time that at least 29 passengers from 12 countries left the ship on Saint Helena Island on April 24, the day after the first death, while the first hantavirus case was only confirmed on May 4.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch shipping company that operates the MV Hondius, acknowledged that 29 passengers including six US citizens and seven Britons had disembarked on Saint Helena before the outbreak status was confirmed.
Also Read: Iran National Team Will Arrive in US Early Ahead of 2026 World Cup, Tehran Emphasizes Visa Issues
Most, if not all, are believed to have returned to their home countries. The company said all passengers who disembarked had been contacted.
The World Health Organization or WHO emphasized that this situation is not equivalent to the Covid-19 pandemic. “This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic. This is not Covid,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness, told reporters.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said WHO assesses that the public health risk remains low, although he acknowledged that new cases may still emerge considering the incubation period for the Andean virus which can reach six weeks.
Tracking of passengers who have returned home is taking place across continents. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC is monitoring passengers traveling to Georgia, California and Arizona, and until this report was published, no one had shown symptoms of illness.
In Switzerland, a man who had returned there was treated in a Zurich hospital after testing positive for hantavirus. Two Singaporeans who were on the ship have been isolated and are undergoing tests.
A Danish citizen on the cruise is in self-quarantine without symptoms. Two British citizens who had returned to their homeland also showed no symptoms and were asked to self-isolate for 45 days.
New concerns emerged in the Netherlands when a woman in Amsterdam, reportedly a KLM flight attendant who had been in contact with the wife of a Dutch man who died on a flight from South Africa, was hospitalized in an isolation ward after showing possible symptoms.
If his test is positive, he would be the first person known to be infected in this outbreak without having been on the MV Hondius.
The chronology of this outbreak began with a 70-year-old Dutch man who showed symptoms on April 6 and died five days later, but his death was attributed to natural causes and did not cause alarm.
His body was revealed in Saint Helena on April 24. His 69-year-old wife then flew to South Africa and transited on a KLM flight in Johannesburg before being taken out for treatment and dying.
Then, a 65-year-old German woman who had a fever on April 28 died on May 2, and her body is still on the ship.
The MV Hondius with 149 people still on board has left the waters of Cape Verde, where docking permits were refused, and is headed for Tenerife, Spain. The ship is expected to arrive Sunday afternoon.
Also Read: WhatsApp Develops Automatic Expiration Status Archive Feature, Will Not Disappear Immediately
Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo voiced concern over the central government’s decision to allow ships to enter Canary waters, and requested a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García confirmed the ship would not dock at port and passengers would only disembark for evacuation in full protective gear without contact with the general public.
European Union countries are expected to start evacuating their citizens from the Canary Islands from Monday 11 May. Argentina itself, which has recorded the highest hantavirus rates in Latin America, has reported 101 cases of infection since June 2025, roughly double the previous year, and is now planning to carry out rodent trapping and analysis in Ushuaia, the home city of the MV Hondius.***
