Two Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
NEW DELHI, MAY 8 : At least two Indian nationals are among the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius, which has reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, the BBC said.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, left Argentina’s Ushuaia on April 1 and is due to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially on board, but dozens disembarked on St Helena on April 24, the report said.
Those on board include 38 from the Philippines, 31 from the United Kingdom, 23 from the United States, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC said.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, who had been confirmed to have the virus, has died, while her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
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.
Inside the cruise ship at the center of a rare hantavirus outbreak
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents, but in the latest outbreak transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who recently disembarked from the vessel.
Oceanwide Expeditions said 29 passengers, from at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, a British Overseas Territory. It also said the body of one deceased person — now known to be a Dutch man — was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
-The New Indian Express
