VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Public health officials in Canada have formally confirmed a positive hantavirus infection in one of four Canadian travelers who recently returned home from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of a global outbreak that has already claimed three lives. The confirmation from the Public Health Agency of Canada came one day after British Columbia’s provincial public health department announced the case had initially been classified as a presumptive positive, with final testing pending at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
In an official public statement Sunday, the national health agency confirmed that only one of the two tested samples from the returning group returned a positive result for the hantavirus. The negative test belonged to the traveling partner of the confirmed case, who is part of the same travel party. Both individuals are a couple in their 70s originally from Yukon, and they are currently receiving care in a Victoria hospital.
The four Canadian passengers disembarked and returned to British Columbia one week prior to the confirmation. Alongside the Yukon couple, the group includes a second person in their 70s from Vancouver Island, and a 50-something British Columbia native who resides outside of Canada. All four travelers are currently in isolation per public health protocols.
This newly confirmed Canadian case marks the 10th positive hantavirus infection tied to the MV Hondius outbreak. To date, the outbreak has killed three people, including a Dutch couple that public health investigators identify as the index cases — researchers believe the pair were first exposed to the virus during a stop in South America before boarding the vessel.
Canadian health authorities have emphasized they are following strict precautionary measures to safeguard the general public. In their statement, the agency noted that the current population-level risk of Andes hantavirus linked to the cruise outbreak remains very low for people living in Canada. As of the update, every confirmed infection connected to the event has been limited to passengers and crew members who were aboard the MV Hondius.
To support global public health safety, Canada has shared full details of the confirmed case with the World Health Organization, and will continue contributing data to the ongoing international investigation into the outbreak.