WHO says cruise ship outbreak is ‘not start of a pandemic’

The outbreak of hantavirus onboard a cruise ship is not the beginning of a pandemic, the World Health Organisation has said.

Health officials added that the health of two Britons medically evacuated from the virus -hit ship is improving.

Infectious disease epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove was asked to compare the outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic .

She said: “I want to be unequivocal here.

This is not SARS-CoV-2.

This is not the start of a Covid pandemic.

This is an outbreak that we see on a ship.”
Dr Van Kerkhove added that the hantavirus spreads through "close, intimate contact" which is different to the spread of Covid.

Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, director at the alert and response co-ordination department, also played down fears the virus could spread significantly.

He highlighted a similar outbreak in Argentina in 2018/19 which led to 34 cases.

“We don’t anticipate a large epidemic.

With experience our member states have, and the actions they have taken, we believe that this will not lead to subsequent chain of transmission.”
A British passenger, understood to be a 69-year-old man, was taken to South Africa on April 27 and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Another Briton, Martin Anstee, 56, was taken off the MV Hondius on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive specialist medical care.

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Dr Van Kerkhove said two patients – known to include a Briton – remain in hospital in the Netherlands, and another Briton is in intensive care in South Africa.

She told a WHO press briefing: “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.

So that is actually very good news.”
The WHO said morale has improved on board since the ship started its journey to Tenerife.

It said two doctors are on board along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who are conducting a medical assessment of everyone on board.

While the risk to the public is low, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , director-general of the WHO, said there could be more cases due to the incubation period of the Andes virus – the variant of hantavirus linked to the outbreak.

“Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he said.

“While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low.”
He added: “I would also like to thank the ship’s operator for its co-operation, and the passengers and crew who are going through a very difficult and frightening situation.

“I’ve been in touch with the ship’s captain regularly, including this morning.

He told me morale has improved significantly since the ship started moving again.”
It emerged earlier that seven British people disembarked from the ship mid-way through the cruise, along with a woman who later died.

A total of 29 people left the ship when it docked in the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.

The woman was accompanying her husband’s body, which was being repatriated after he died on the ship on April 11.

Tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement: “On 1 April 2026, 114 guests boarded MV Hondius in Ushuaia, Argentina.

“Thirty guests disembarked MV Hondius on Saint Helena on 24 April 2026.

“This number includes the body of the guest who passed away on board MV Hondius on 11 April 2026.”
The 30 people who disembarked were from 12 nations, including the seven Britons.

Oceanwide Expeditions said guests who disembarked have been contacted.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been asked whether it can confirm it has been in touch with all seven Britons who left the ship on April 24.

On Wednesday, the ECDC said everyone on board should be considered a “close contact”.

These passengers flew back to the UK via Johannesburg after getting off in St Helena.

Some 19 British nationals were listed as passengers on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members.

UK health experts said British passengers on board will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, said “for the broader public, not directly involved in this cruise ship , the risk here is really negligible”.

The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight so the remaining Britons on board the ship who are not displaying symptoms can be repatriated once they dock in Tenerife in the next few days.

According to the UKHSA, none of the British citizens on board is reporting symptoms, but they are being closely monitored.

Prof May said the “most extreme case of incubation” of hantavirus “may be up to eight weeks” but general consensus is people need to isolate for “probably six weeks, and so that’s the period of isolation, 45 days, that we’re likely to be recommending”.

The two contacted health officials when they heard about the cases on the ship and are voluntarily self-isolating in the UK.

They do not have symptoms.

The outbreak, which has been linked to three deaths, has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.

Despite concerns from locals and officials, Spanish authorities have given permission for the ship to dock in the Canary Islands.

The boat left the shores of Cape Verde at 6.15pm UK time on Wednesday, Oceanwide Expeditions said, with the journey to the port of Granadilla in Tenerife expected to take three to four days.

Three people were taken off the ship on Wednesday to the Netherlands for treatment, including Mr Anstee.

Speaking from hospital, he told Sky News: “I’m doing OK.

I’m not feeling too bad.

There are still lots of tests to be done.

“I have no idea how long I’ll be in the hospital for.

I’m in isolation at the moment.”
His wife Nicola told the Telegraph it had been “a very traumatic few days”.

The Associated Press reported the Argentine government’s hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a birdwatching outing in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.

Two Argentine officials told the news agency that the couple visited a landfill during the birdwatching tour where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.

Passengers were confined to their cabins while “disinfection and other public health measures are carried out”, the WHO said on Tuesday.