Three passengers who traveled aboard the cruise ship Hondius are dead, while two crew members and one passenger are sick from a hantavirus outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Hondius is currently stranded outside Praia, Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, where it has been since the early hours of May 3. Cape Verde officials have prevented the ship’s passengers from disembarking, citing health concerns. Maria da Luz Lima, head of the National Institute of Public Health, said, “There would be no contact between the passengers and the country.”
The ship’s 88 passengers and 61 crew members are stuck aboard the ship with no disembarkation plan yet, according to a statement by the ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions at 5:30 EST on Monday, May 4.
Passengers have been told to quarantine in their rooms.
The ship has passengers and crew from 23 different countries. An international effort to coordinate medical screening and disembarkation of the crew and passengers is underway and includes the WHO, the RIVM, relevant embassies, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Hondius‘ voyage started on March 20, departing from Ushuaia, Argentina. The ship made stops in Antarctica before returning to Ushuaia and departing again on April 1. The ship’s final stop was scheduled to be the Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa.
The first person on the cruise died on April 11, a male Dutch passenger. He was disembarked at St. Helena on April 24 with his wife, also a Dutch national. On April 27, the woman collapsed on her way home at Johannesburg airport in South Africa, and later died. A third passenger, a German national, died onboard the ship on May 2.
Hantavirus has been confirmed in two cases, one from the deceased Dutch woman and the other from a sick British passenger, according Oceanwide Expeditions. The sick passenger has been medically evacuated to Johannesburg, South Africa and is currently being treated in an intensive care unit.
The two sick crew members have not been medically evacuated yet and remain on the cruise ship. Oceanwide Expeditions states both crew members present acute respiratory symptoms, one mild and one severe, and require urgent medical care.
The virus has not yet been confirmed in the two sick crew members and two other deceased passengers.
Hantavirus outbreaks are rare but deadly. In a 30 year period from 1993 to 2023, 890 cases of hantavirus were reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC lists the mortality rate at 35%.
This appears to be the first ever known hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship.
According to the WHO, hantavirus is typically contracted through exposure to infected rodents’ urine or feces. Human to human transmission has been documented but is rare. Symptoms typically appear within one to eight weeks after initial exposure. Initial symptoms include fever and headache and can lead to severe respiratory illness.
The situation echoes the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when port nations similarly refused entry to cruise ships carrying infected passengers. Passengers and crew stranded aboard ships during the pandemic faced prolonged uncertainty over who held legal responsibility for their care, whether the cruise line, the flag state, or the port nation. The Hondius situation raises the same unanswered question that currently leaves two sick crew members requiring medial attention stuck on the ship.