Hantavirus Outbreak on Hondius Kills Three After Atlantic Voyage

Updated May 25, 2026

The hantavirus outbreak linked to Oceanwide Expeditions' m/v Hondius has moved from a shipboard medical emergency to a multi-country monitoring effort after passengers were evacuated or repatriated from the South Atlantic voyage. Three people connected to the cruise have died, the World Health Organization's May 13 accounting listed 11 outbreak cases, and Oceanwide Expeditions has said no symptomatic individuals remain aboard.

The WHO count comprised eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Canadian health officials later confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from Hondius tested positive for hantavirus. No confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported. Health agencies have continued monitoring because the incubation period can extend up to eight weeks.

The cluster remains unusual in cruise operations because shipboard outbreaks more commonly involve highly contagious gastrointestinal pathogens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 23 gastrointestinal outbreaks on ships calling at U.S. ports in 2025, 18 of them caused by norovirus. Hantavirus is usually acquired through rodent exposure and is not generally easy to transmit person to person.

Response moves ashore

Hondius, a 107.6-meter PC6/1A Super-equivalent polar expedition vessel that typically sails with about 170 passengers and roughly 70 crew plus expedition staff, had been operating a route that began in Ushuaia, Argentina, and included Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other South Atlantic stops.

South Africa's Department of Health said the first victim was a 70-year-old Dutch man who died on the ship and whose body was removed at Saint Helena. His 69-year-old wife later died at a hospital in Johannesburg after collapsing while trying to return to the Netherlands. A British national was treated in intensive care in South Africa.

Earlier in the response, Oceanwide Expeditions said the ship was off Cape Verde and that two symptomatic crew members needed urgent medical care. Cape Verdean authorities initially kept passengers from disembarking while local health officials assessed the vessel. The operator has since said no symptomatic individuals remain on board.

Twenty British passengers evacuated from the ship arrived at an isolation facility after a repatriation flight landed in the UK. UK health officials also identified two confirmed cases in British nationals, including the 69-year-old man receiving care in Johannesburg and a 56-year-old expedition guide who was flown to the Netherlands for care. UKHSA said people may need to be isolated for 45 days, while describing the public risk as very low.

Passengers evacuated from Hondius also disembarked at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands on May 12. In Canada, officials said one returning passenger tested positive, a traveling companion tested negative, and two British Columbia residents remained in isolation. U.S. officials have monitored returning passengers in several states, but no confirmed U.S. cruise-linked case has been reported.

Investigators focus on Andes strain and Ushuaia exposure

Hantavirus refers to a family of rodent-borne viruses. Most infections occur when people inhale particles from infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva, particularly after contaminated material is disturbed in enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces. Rare transmission through rodent bites or scratches is also possible.

The Andes strain is significant because it is the hantavirus variant with previous evidence of limited person-to-person spread, mainly in South America. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said investigators believed some transmission may have occurred among “really close contacts,” including a husband and wife and people who shared cabins. “This is not a virus that spreads like flu or like COVID,” she said.

How the virus reached the passenger group is still unclear. One line of inquiry is whether the Dutch couple may have been exposed to infected rodents while birdwatching at a landfill site in Ushuaia before the voyage. Van Kerkhove said the operator told WHO there were no rats aboard. Argentina's Health Ministry said it was reconstructing the couple's itinerary while sending experts to capture and test rodents in areas linked to their route around Ushuaia.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to distinguish the response from respiratory pandemics. “This is not another Covid. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he said.

Symptoms, treatment and prevention

Hantavirus infections can begin with fever, chills, muscle aches, headache and fatigue before progressing to severe respiratory disease or kidney-related illness, depending on the virus. “Early in the illness, you really may not be able to tell the difference between hantavirus and having the flu,” said Dr. Sonja Bartolome of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome generally appear one to eight weeks after exposure. The CDC has said that syndrome is fatal in about 35% of infected people, while hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome has a fatality range of 1% to 15%. There is no specific cure or vaccine. Early supportive care can improve survival, and severe cases may require oxygen, ventilation, blood-pressure support or dialysis.

Public-health guidance for hantavirus prevention centers on avoiding rodent contact and cleaning contaminated areas without aerosolizing droppings. Health authorities advise using gloves and disinfectant, including bleach solution, and caution against sweeping or vacuuming rodent waste because that can put virus particles into the air. On ships under the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program, inspections generally occur twice a year, often without notice, and include pest-control plans, medical facilities, ventilation, water systems, food handling and housekeeping.