90-Second Read: Health officials track dozens who left Hantavirus-stricken ship after first fatality

Despite a cruise ship outbreak of a rare rodent-borne illness, global health officials say the risk to the general public remains low because Hantavirus germs do not easily spread between people. It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed Hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO says. Health workers get off the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people as it remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected Hantavirus outbreak. Oceanwide Expeditions has revealed that 30 passengers disembarked from its cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak on April 24. Three passengers have died and several others have been sickened by Hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship.

Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef) Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly Hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise. In Argentina, a team of investigators has yet to leave for the southern town where they suspect the outbreak originated, officials from the country's Health Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday. Helena to Johannesburg and was confirmed to have Hantavirus, the French Health Ministry said in a statement Thursday. Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef) Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. It emerged Wednesday that a man tested positive for Hantavirus in Switzerland after he disembarked.

He died just two hours after a Hantavirus test came back positive. The World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low. Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn't easily transmitted between people. Argentina's health ministry said there were 28 deaths from Hantavirus last year, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest.

The body of the third fatality, a German woman, is also still on the ship after she died on May 2. Medical personnel in hazmat suits wait for patients, evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected Hantavirus infection, at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure. A French citizen with "benign symptoms" is in isolation and undergoing medical tests, after being identified as a contact case linked to the ship passenger who flew April 25 from St.