Third British national feared to have hantavirus after MV Hondius outbreak

A third British citizen is feared to have contracted hantavirus following an outbreak linked to the cruise vessel MV Hondius. The patient is on Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, where the ship stopped in mid-April. Two other British men who were on the Hondius have been confirmed to have the disease.

One of them, professional birdwatching guide Martin Anstee, was evacuated to a hospital in the Netherlands and remains in stable condition. The other, a British doctor, is in intensive care in South Africa. According to authorities, there are five confirmed cases in total, including one of the three people who died.

Four British passengers who disembarked at St Helena after a man died on board have been located. They were among 30 passengers who left the ship along with the dead man’s wife, who also died a few days later in Johannesburg. The four are now believed to have symptoms and are in contact with health officials.

Medical staff is expected to be sent to the island in the South Atlantic. In the Netherlands, a KLM flight attendant who was in contact with a 69-year-old Dutch woman who died from hantavirus has tested negative after being taken to hospital in Amsterdam with mild symptoms.

Separately, the French health ministry said a French national who shared a flight with the woman who died after flying from St Helena to Johannesburg on 25 April has developed mild symptoms and gone into isolation. Officials said tests are underway to determine the cause; eight French people who were not on the cruise but were on that flight are being monitored.

The operator of MV Hondius, Oceanwide Expeditions, said no guests or crew still on board are presenting with hantavirus symptoms. The company said people had been evacuated from the liner and were being treated by medical professionals. The ship is heading toward the Canary Islands to dock, with arrival aimed for the early hours of Sunday, 10 May.

Elsewhere, a patient has been diagnosed with hantavirus in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports. The case is believed to have been infected during a stay in Eastern Europe several months ago and is not linked to the MV Hondius. The patient sought medical help after developing symptoms, is in a stable condition, has not required intensive care or strict isolation, and is under medical observation.

The World Health Organization said hospital patients, including the British men being treated in South Africa and the Netherlands, are doing better. “I am very happy to say the patient in South Africa is doing better, and the two patients in the Netherlands we hear are stable,” said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.

The WHO added that the Andes strain of hantavirus has shown instances of human-to-human transmission in previous outbreaks, unlike other strains typically spread from rodents, with possible transmission among intimate partners and within households.

Authorities continue to trace passengers who left the MV Hondius and to provide medical support where needed, while the vessel proceeds to port and health monitoring continues across several countries.