LIVE Updates: WHO Confirms Hantavirus Outbreak Unlikely to Escalate to Pandemic Level

The unfolding situation aboard the Hondius has captured global attention since the outbreak was reported last weekend.

According to Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch company managing the MV Hondius, there are 149 individuals aboard, hailing from 23 different countries, as confirmed on Thursday.

Among these passengers, over 80 hail from major groups including Britain, the United States, and Spain, while the majority of the crew members originate from the Philippines.

After three individuals suspected of illness were evacuated on Wednesday, the ship’s operator announced on Thursday that currently, no one on the vessel is exhibiting symptoms.

Tragically, a Dutch couple who had journeyed through South America prior to embarking on the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, were the first to succumb to the illness.

The 70-year-old husband began showing symptoms on April 6 and passed away on April 11. His remains were removed from the ship during its stopover at Saint Helena in the South Atlantic from April 22 to 24.

His 69-year-old wife, who was feeling unwell, also left the ship at Saint Helena. Her health deteriorated during an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and she died in hospital a day later, with hantavirus confirmed on May 4.

A German passenger who developed a fever on April 28, which became pneumonia, died on May 2. Her body remains on the ship.

The rare disease is usually spread from infected rodents, typically through urine, droppings and saliva.

Laboratory testing in South Africa and Switzerland confirmed the two patients being treated in those countries had the Andes strain of hantavirus – the only one known to pass between humans.

There are no vaccines or specific treatments for hantavirus.

The cruise began on April 1, with 114 guests boarding at Ushuaia, Oceanwide Expeditions said.

After South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha and other Atlantic islands, the vessel called at Saint Helena, where 30 guests disembarked on April 24.

The Hondius then stopped at Ascension Island on April 27, before anchoring off Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, from Sunday until it set sail for the Canaries late Wednesday.

Spain’s health ministry has said the ship is expected in Tenerife on Sunday, with evacuation of passengers set to start on May 11.

• What is happening on board

The WHO said passengers were being asked to isolate in their cabins while disinfection and other measures are being taken.

A former passenger told AFP that life carried on as usual aboard the ship after the captain announced the first passenger’s death.

‘We again kept eating all together… and we didn’t wear any masks,’ said Turkish national Ruhi Cenet, who left the cruise in Saint Helena.