A serious public health incident is unfolding on a cruise ship anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, where three people have already died amid a suspected hantavirus outbreak, and Dutch authorities are set to lead a coordinated mission to repatriate two acutely ill passengers still on board, the vessel’s operator has confirmed.
In its first official public statement addressing the crisis, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, acknowledged the unfolding “serious medical situation” on the vessel. The ship was mid-voyage, traveling north from Ushuaia, Argentina toward Cape Verde when the outbreak began.
The operator has verified three fatalities connected to the incident: two deaths occurred on board the ship, while a third victim died after disembarking earlier for emergency care. One passenger is already receiving intensive care treatment in a Johannesburg hospital, where hantavirus has been confirmed in their case. Two remaining symptomatic passengers on the MV Hondius now require urgent, advanced medical intervention that cannot be adequately provided on the vessel.
Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed that Dutch authorities have committed to leading a joint international effort to medically evacuate and repatriate the two symptomatic people from the ship’s current position off Cape Verde to medical facilities in the Netherlands. The evacuation and repatriation effort remains contingent on multiple key approvals, most notably formal authorization from local Cape Verdean authorities, which has not yet been granted. While local medical practitioners have already boarded the vessel to evaluate the health status of the two passengers, permission to move them to onshore medical facilities in Cape Verde is still pending.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the department is actively assessing all logistical and regulatory options to carry out the medical evacuation of the affected passengers. “If this can take place, the ministry of foreign affairs will coordinate it,” the spokesperson said.
Oceanwide Expeditions added that it remains in constant close communication with Cape Verdean health authorities to coordinate plans for full disembarkation and universal medical screening of all passengers and crew once local approval is secured.
Though hantavirus has been confirmed in the Johannesburg patient, operators emphasize that it has not yet been definitively linked to the three recorded deaths, and neither has hantavirus been confirmed in the two symptomatic patients still on the ship. “The exact cause and any possible connection are under investigation,” the company said.
The World Health Organization released an update on the incident Sunday, confirming one laboratory-positive case of hantavirus and five additional suspected cases. The U.N. health agency noted that while hantavirus infections in humans are rare, human-to-human transmission is possible, and the pathogen can cause life-threatening severe respiratory illness that requires constant specialized monitoring and supportive care.
Hantavirus is most commonly transmitted to humans from contact with rodent excreta, according to global public health data.