Hantavirus updates — latest reports and timeline

WHO declares the MV Hondius Andes hantavirus outbreak contained on 2 July 2026 (Disease Outbreak News 2026-DON611): every identified contact has completed the 42-day follow-up period with no further cases, and the outbreak no longer poses a public health risk. Final toll: 13 cases (12 laboratory-confirmed, one probable) and three deaths, a case fatality ratio of 23%. Since 28 May the probable case on Tristan da Cunha has been confirmed, after a sample was shipped to the United Kingdom for testing, and that patient has recovered. Of the ten cases admitted to hospital, eight have been discharged and two, in South Africa and France, remain in hospital. Contacts were followed up in 33 countries and overseas territories: 317 high-risk contacts completed quarantine and 336 low-risk contacts completed self-monitoring. All confirmed cases travelled on the ship, and WHO describes limited human-to-human transmission without evidence of sustained spread.

ECDC's update of 17 June counts 13 cases in total, 12 laboratory-confirmed and one probable, including three deaths, among passengers and crew from 23 countries, nine of them in the EU/EEA. Some identified contacts have completed their quarantine and others are due to in the coming days; ECDC considers further cases very unlikely and the risk to the general EU/EEA population very low.

WHO's fourth Disease Outbreak News (data to 27 May) counts 13 cases, 11 laboratory-confirmed and two probable, including three deaths, after new cases in Canada, the Netherlands and Spain. More than 600 contacts, 53% of them high-risk, had been identified across 32 countries, territories and areas by 22 May.

Case 13: a Spanish national quarantining at the Gómez Ulla Military Hospital in Madrid tests positive on 25 May (24 May in the article's timeline) and is moved to isolation; the patient survives.

Case 12: a Dutch crew member already in isolation in the Netherlands tests positive on 22 May, taking the total to twelve cases; the patient survives.

Case 11: a Canadian passenger self-isolating in Victoria, British Columbia, falls ill on 14 May, tests presumptively positive on 15 May and is confirmed by Canada's national laboratory on 18 May; the patient recovers.

MV Hondius docks in Rotterdam on 18 May. Everyone still aboard is tested again and disembarks, apart from five crew members, including the captain, who stay on board while the ship is disinfected; the non-Dutch crew enter quarantine, the two Dutch medical workers self-quarantine at home, and the body of the German passenger who died on 2 May is taken off to be cremated. The ship is cleared to return to service on 30 May.

Case 10: one of 14 Spanish nationals repatriated from the ship on 10 May tests positive on 11 May and is confirmed on 12 May; the patient, with mild symptoms, recovers.

Case 9: a French passenger who fell ill on her repatriation flight from Tenerife on 10 May tests positive on 11 May. She is placed on life support in intensive care in Paris and discharged on 6 August, after three months in hospital.

MV Hondius arrives in the Canary Islands on 10 May and disembarkation begins. Passengers and most of the crew are repatriated to their home countries or transit points on specially arranged non-commercial flights, with WHO and partners supporting the disembarkation. The ship leaves the Canary Islands on 11 May for the Netherlands with 25 crew members aboard, along with two Dutch health workers to monitor their health.

Case 1 (index): an adult male who fell ill on 6 April and died on board on 11 April without being tested; WHO's 8 May update classifies him as a probable case, the first of the outbreak's three deaths.

Case 4: an adult female who fell ill on 28 April and died on 2 May; a post-mortem sample sent to the Netherlands confirms Andes virus, and WHO's 8 May update counts her as a confirmed case, the outbreak's third death.

Case 8: an adult male who left the ship at Tristan da Cunha on 14 April and fell ill on 28 April; WHO's 8 May update counts him as a probable case pending laboratory confirmation.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus briefs the media on 7 May: eight cases have been reported, including three deaths, and five are confirmed as hantavirus. The virus is Andes virus, the only hantavirus species known to be capable of limited transmission between humans, linked to close and prolonged contact. WHO assesses the public health risk as low, has deployed an expert on board to support a medical assessment of all passengers and crew, and has arranged for 2,500 diagnostic kits to be shipped from Argentina to laboratories in five countries.

CDC sends a team on 7 May to meet MV Hondius in the Canary Islands after its departure from Cabo Verde, and on 8 May issues Health Advisory HAN00528 to US clinicians, describing the eight cases WHO has reported (six confirmed and two suspected), including three deaths. It recommends airborne-infection isolation for patients with suspected or confirmed Andes virus infection, notes that symptoms usually appear 4 to 42 days after exposure, and considers the risk to the public's health in the United States extremely low.

Case 5: the ship's doctor, an adult male who fell ill on 30 April, is confirmed by PCR on 6 May and medically evacuated from Cabo Verde to the Netherlands the same day.

Case 6: an adult male working as a guide on the ship, who fell ill on 27 April, is confirmed by PCR on 6 May and medically evacuated from Cabo Verde to the Netherlands on 7 May.

Case 7: an adult male who had left the ship at Saint Helena falls ill at home in Switzerland on 1 May and is confirmed by PCR on 5 May, in isolation in hospital in Zurich.

WHO publishes its first Disease Outbreak News on the cluster on 4 May, with the ship moored off the coast of Cabo Verde. The United Kingdom notified WHO on 2 May of severe acute respiratory illness aboard, including two deaths and one critically ill passenger. By 4 May there are seven cases, two laboratory-confirmed and five suspected, including three deaths, with illness onsets between 6 and 28 April. The ship is carrying 147 people, 88 passengers and 59 crew of 23 nationalities, and passengers are advised to keep their distance and stay in their cabins where possible.

Case 2: an adult female close contact of the index case, who went ashore ill at Saint Helena on 24 April, dies on arrival at a Johannesburg emergency department on 26 April; PCR testing confirms hantavirus on 4 May.

Case 3: an adult male passenger, medically evacuated from Ascension to intensive care in South Africa on 27 April, is confirmed by PCR at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases on 2 May, the cluster's first laboratory confirmation.