Spain’s government says passengers aboard the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak will be flown to their home countries soon after the vessel arrives in the Canary Islands on Sunday.

“That same day, we will have planes available and will be able to start getting these people onto the planes,” Cabinet minister Angel Victor Torres told journalists.

Separately, the Spanish archipelago’s regional government said adverse weather conditions meant the evacuation had to happen swiftly.

“The only window of opportunity we have to carry out this operation is around 12 o’clock on Sunday morning and until conditions change from Monday,” regional government spokesman Alfonso Cabello told reporters.

He said failure to get passengers out in that window could mean the ship will have to leave again.

The MV Hondius is scheduled to reach the port of Granadilla on the island of Tenerife on Sunday morning.

Nearly 150 people from more than 20 countries are still on board the vessel.

Spanish authorities have said the ship will not be allowed to dock in Tenerife. Instead, it will anchor off shore, with passengers transferred to the port by a smaller boat before being taken to the airport by bus.

Hantavirus testing and contact tracing continues: What’s the latest?

Spanish authorities say a 32-year-old woman from Alicante has symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection and is being tested.

The woman was on board the same flight as a Dutch woman who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship and later died from the virus.

Authorities said the woman is displaying “mild respiratory symptoms” and has been placed in isolation in hospital.

Secretary of State ​for Health ‌Javier Padilla said the test results were expected within 24 hours.

He said the woman had been sitting two rows behind the Dutch passenger — the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak — who was briefly on a Netherlands-bound plane from Johannesburg on April 25, but was removed before take-off.

She later died in a Johannesburg hospital.

Flight attendant tests negative

A flight attendant from KLM who came into contact with the same infected passenger and later showed mild symptoms has tested negative, the WHO said Friday.

KLM said Dutch health authorities were contacting people on the flight “as a precaution.”

Three passengers aboard the Hondius cruise ship died after contracting what experts have identified as the Andes strain of the hantavirus — a version that can spread from human to human, but typically only after close contact.

Countries around the world are currently tracking passengers who were on the ship in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further.

Some passengers suspected of coming into close contact with those who died were evacuated from the Hondius on Cape Verde – Image: Misper Apawu/AP Photo/dpa/picture alliance

Third British infection suspected

Another suspected case of the virus was identified in a British national on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha on Friday.

The British health security agency did not disclose further details.

The Hondius made a stop at the remote island on April 15.

Two other British nationals who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus and are being treated in hospital in the Netherlands and South Africa.

No evidence of hantavirus in German case

A woman who was transferred to a hospital in the German city of Düsseldorf is showing no signs of a hantavirus infection.

The 65-year-old cruise ship passenger was picked up on Wednesday on the Atlantic Island of Cape Verde because she had been in close contact with another passenger who later died.

She was transferred to Düsseldorf for testing after being flown to the Netherlands.

The hospital said tests thus far had failed to detect the hantavirus, but that protective measures will remain in place because it can take “several weeks” for symptoms to appear.

Singapore residents test negative

Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents who were on the MV Hondius have tested negative for the virus.

The two men, aged 65 and 67, disembarked from the ship in St Helena and were on the same flight as a confirmed hantavirus case to Johannesburg on April 25.

Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency said they would be quarantined as a precaution for 30 days and will undergo further testing before being released.

On the cruise ship “Hondius,” three people have died. A case of hantavirus has been proven in another passenger, two more people have fallen ill – Image: Oceanwide Expeditions/AP Photo/picture alliance

What is hantavirus?

Three people have died on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, reportedly from hantavirus. The dangerous Andes strain has been confirmed in two cases. What are the symptoms, and how is it transmitted?

On a cruise ship sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, three passengers—a Dutch couple and a German woman—have died following a suspected hantavirus outbreak. The virus has been confirmed in another passenger. According to media reports, the 69-year-old is receiving intensive care treatment in South Africa. Several crew members are also seriously ill. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates a total of eight hantavirus cases, three of which have been confirmed so far.

How and where exactly the travelers were infected remains unclear.

Image: CDC/Image Point FR/BSIP/IMAGO

“The risk to the general public remains low,” the WHO Regional Office for Europe said in a  press release on Monday. “There is no reason for panic or travel restrictions.”

On Wednesday, it was reported that the deceased Dutch woman and the patient currently being treated in South Africa were infected with the Andes virus. Although rare, this is the only strain of hantavirus known to spread from person to person, and it has a higher mortality rate than most others.

The ship involved is the “Hondius,” operated by the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions. A total of 149 passengers and crew were on board.

What is hantavirus and how does infection occur?

Hantavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning it is typically transmitted from animals to humans. The exception is the Andes virus, which is believed to be capable of human-to-human transmission, although close, prolonged contact is usually required. This strain occurs in Chile and Argentina, where the cruise passengers are thought to have been infected.

The natural hosts of hantaviruses are primarily various species of mice and rats, though the viruses have also been detected in shrews, moles and bats. Infected animals shed the virus through saliva, urine and feces.

People become infected through contact with the excretions of infected rodents. The most common way is breathing in contaminated dust — for example, when dried droppings or nesting material get stirred up.

Infection can also occur by ingesting contaminated particles or by touching the eyes or nose after contact with contaminated material. The virus can survive in the environment for several weeks. Direct contact with infected rodents is not necessary for transmission, though a bite from an infected animal can also cause infection.

The hantavirus is transmitted by rodents such as rats – Image: Arno Burgi/dpa/picture alliance

What are the typical hantavirus symptoms?

The severity of illness depends on the hantavirus strain involved. Strains found in Europe and Asia typically cause flu-like illness, with high fever lasting three to four days (above 38 degrees Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), along with headache, abdominal pain and back pain — though some patients show no symptoms at all. In some cases, the disease can progress to hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which can cause a drop in blood pressure and kidney dysfunction, potentially progressing to acute kidney failure.

The fatality rate of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome ranges from less than 1% up to 15%, depending on the virus strain, according to a 2023 review published in The Lancet.

Hantavirus strains found in North and South America can trigger a pulmonary syndrome, in which fluid accumulates in the lungs, blood pressure drops, and severe respiratory distress can develop. The pulmonary syndrome is fatal in roughly 30% to 40% of cases, according to the Lancet study.

Long-term effects and treatment

Recent studies suggest hantavirus can have lasting health consequences even after the acute infection resolves. Researchers have found that patients face an elevated risk of certain blood cancers and cardiovascular diseases in the years following infection. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear, according to the Lancet study.

Treatment for hantavirus is largely limited to managing symptoms. Severe cases may require dialysis or mechanical ventilation. No vaccines against hantavirus are currently available in Europe, North America or South America. Vaccines are used in China and South Korea, but their efficacy has not yet been scientifically confirmed, according to the study from The Lancet.

Research into new treatment approaches is ongoing. An experimental therapy based on antibodies from survivors successfully neutralized several hantavirus strains in initial trials. Separately, DNA vaccines targeting Puumala virus showed promising results in early human trials, with findings published in November 2024.

DW.com/NAN 9-05-26

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