Hantavirus on the MV Hondius Cruise Ship: Inside the Floating Crisis That Killed Three and Stranded 147 (opens in new tab)

On May 3, 2026, the MV Hondius — a Dutch expedition cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions — anchored off Cape Verde after a suspected hantavirus outbreak killed three passengers (a Dutch man, a Dutch woman, and a German woman) and left several others critically ill. The ship had departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1, making stops in Antarctica and remote Atlantic islands. By May 4, WHO confirmed two laboratory-verified hantavirus cases and five suspected cases among 147 crew and pass...