Hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius kills three

Three people were killed in a hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius while it was off the coast of West Africa. The deaths were the first toll reported from the ship. Hantavirus is a virus spread by rodents that can cause a severe respiratory illness. The ship's outbreak involved the Andes strain.

Three passengers with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by the Andes virus were later evacuated from the ship off Cape Verde. They were taken for treatment in the Netherlands. At least 145 people remained on board, including two suspected asymptomatic cases. Asymptomatic means a person shows no symptoms but is still under suspicion of infection.

Spanish authorities allowed the ship to dock in the Canary Islands because several passengers are Spanish citizens. The World Health Organization then reported six cases of the Andes strain connected to MV Hondius. The ship later arrived at Tenerife, and passengers who had been exposed left the vessel. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands.

British Army medics were parachuted from an RAF A400M aircraft onto Tristan da Cunha, a remote island in the South Atlantic. They delivered supplies to a British national with suspected hantavirus. That mission is part of the same outbreak response, aimed at a person linked to the suspected illness far from a hospital. The report does not say that this person was still aboard the ship at the time of the drop.

Spain's health ministry confirmed the country's first case of hantavirus in a Spanish passenger from MV Hondius. The passenger had been in isolation at a hospital in Madrid since May 11. Separately, an American traveler suspected of potential contact with the virus was quarantined on arrival in the Pitcairn Islands after passing through French Polynesia. Isolation and quarantine are restrictions meant to keep an infection from spreading.

The MV Hondius outbreak has killed three people and produced confirmed Andes-strain infections, including Spain's first case. Passengers were evacuated at sea and again when the ship reached Tenerife, with at least 145 still aboard at the time of the Cape Verde evacuation. Medics also parachuted supplies to Tristan da Cunha for a British national with suspected illness. The Spanish confirmation was reported on May 12.