Bhopal May 8, 2026. At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far. The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10. About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.

At least three passengers have died, and several other people are sick. The WHO considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low and on Friday, confirmed that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative. Global health authorities are attempting to contain a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, as the number of confirmed infections continues to rise, the report added.

No immediate public health threat to India from hantavirus cases, says ICMR

Amid reports of two Indian nationals being infected with hantavirus aboard a cruise ship, Dr Naveen Kumar, who is Director of the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology, reportedly said the cases appear to be isolated and there is no immediate public health threat to India. He said there is currently no evidence of community transmission.

Reports suggest the Spanish authorities on Friday were preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, where health officials have said they will perform careful evacuations. The vessel is expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Saturday or Sunday. “They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed five hantavirus cases linked to deaths aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Three more suspected cases are also being examined for possible links to the Andes strain of the virus. The WHO said more cases may emerge, but the overall risk to public health remains low. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the UN health agency’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeus said the WHO had been notified by the UK of a cluster of passengers with severe respiratory illness on the Hondius cruise ship, currently sailing from Cape Verde in the Atlantic to the Spanish island of Tenerife. “While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low,” Ghebreyeus told reporters. Eight cases have been reported so far, including three dead, five confirmed and three suspected, he said. Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe disease in people. They usually get infected through contact with infected rodents, their urine, droppings or saliva. The strain of hantavirus detected on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship is the Andes virus. It has been found in Latin America and is the only hantavirus known to be capable of limited human-to-human transmission.

In previous outbreaks, transmission between people has been associated with long and prolonged contacts among household members, intimate partners and healthcare workers. The first death on the ship was a man who developed symptoms on April 6 and died five days later. No samples were taken, and hantavirus was not identified because the symptoms were similar to other viruses, the WHO’s chief said. The man’s wife became the second victim. She went ashore in Saint Helena, became symptomatic and died on April 25. Another woman became the third fatality, developing symptoms on April 25 and dying seven days later.

“Given the incubation period of the hantavirus, which can be up to six weeks, it is possible that more cases may be reported.” Before boarding the ship, the first two victims had travelled in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay on a bird watching trip, which included visits to sites home to rats known to carry hantavirus. Argentina authories are investigating the couple’s movements. Tedros said Argentina would send 2,500 diagnostic kits to laboratories in five countries.

The WHO informed 12 countries whose nationals disembarked in Saint Helena. They are from Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye and the United States.