Aggiornamenti sugli hantavirus — ultimi rapporti e cronologia

WHO declares the MV Hondius Andes hantavirus outbreak OVER on 2 July 2026, after the last identified close contact completed quarantine with no further transmission. Final toll: 13 cases (12 confirmed, one probable) and three deaths among 147 people from 23 countries aboard, with onward person-to-person transmission documented in at least one household pair. No cases occurred outside the ship's exposed cohort and their close contacts, and no sustained community transmission was established in any country.

ECDC's update of 17 June records the final case count for the MV Hondius Andes hantavirus outbreak: 13 cases in total — 12 laboratory-confirmed and one probable — including three deaths, a case fatality ratio of 23%. Some identified contacts have by this date completed their quarantine periods. No further cases are reported after this point.

Case 8: a British passenger who disembarked at Tristan da Cunha on 14 April with symptom onset 28 April, confirmed only on 10 June after serological testing reached the islands — the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, six days' sail from Cape Town. The last case of the outbreak to be confirmed, and the reason the final count settled at 12 confirmed plus one probable rather than the 11-plus-two reported in May. Recovers.

Case 13 by date of confirmation: a second Spanish passenger, symptom onset and confirmation both on 25 May in Madrid. Recovers. WHO's Disease Outbreak News of 27 May records the cluster at 13 cases (11 confirmed and two probable) including three deaths, a case fatality ratio of 23%.

Case 12: a Dutch crew member, symptom onset and confirmation both on 22 May, detected through the crew testing programme at Rotterdam. The only crew case in the cluster; the remaining 12 cases were passengers. Recovers.

As of 22 May more than 600 contacts — 53% classified high-risk and 47% low-risk — have been identified across 32 countries, territories and areas, one of the widest contact-tracing footprints ever mounted for a hantavirus event. ECDC coordinates the EU/EEA share, covering the nine member states with nationals aboard, and assesses the risk to the general EU/EEA population as very low.

Case 11: a Canadian passenger, symptom onset 14 May, first positive 15 May and confirmed 18 May in Victoria, British Columbia. The only case reported in the Americas, and evidence that the exposed cohort dispersed across four continents before the cluster was recognised. Recovers.

MV Hondius arrives at Rotterdam on 18 May with its remaining crew, who are tested and disembarked under Dutch public-health supervision before the vessel is disinfected. This closes the shipboard phase of the response; from here the event is managed entirely as international contact tracing of dispersed passengers and crew.

Case 9: a French passenger, symptom onset 12 May, confirmed and admitted to intensive care in Paris. The most severe surviving case of the cluster — discharged only on 6 August after nearly three months, including a prolonged period of respiratory support.

Case 10: a Spanish passenger, symptom onset 11 May, confirmed on 12 May in Madrid after disembarking at Tenerife. Recovers.

MV Hondius arrives at the Port of Granadilla, Tenerife on 10 May under a controlled-disembarkation protocol agreed between Spanish health authorities, the flag state and WHO. Three patients had already been evacuated by air ambulance from Cabo Verde on 6 May. Disembarkation and repatriation flights begin; on 11 May the remaining 122 passengers leave the vessel and the ship sails for Rotterdam with a skeleton crew.

CDC deploys a team on 7 May to meet MV Hondius in the Canary Islands, and on 8 May issues Health Advisory HAN00528 to US clinicians describing the multi-country cluster — at that point eight cases (six confirmed, two suspected) including three deaths — and asking for heightened suspicion of hantavirus in returning travellers. No US case is ultimately confirmed: a single inconclusive US specimen is retested and determined negative on 15 May.

WHO confirms on 6 May that the causative agent of the MV Hondius cluster is Andes orthohantavirus (ANDV), the South American species endemic to Argentina and Chile and the only hantavirus with documented person-to-person transmission. The finding reframes the event from a point-source shipboard exposure to one with onward transmission risk among close contacts, and triggers international contact tracing of passengers, crew and their onward travel contacts.

Case 4: a German passenger with symptom onset on 28 April, the second death aboard MV Hondius, dying on 2 May as the vessel lay off Praia, Cabo Verde. Andes virus is confirmed post-mortem on 6 May. Third and final death of the outbreak, giving a case fatality ratio of 23% across the 13 cases.

Case 5: a Dutch passenger, symptom onset 30 April, confirmed on 6 May after repatriation to the Netherlands and admission to a high-containment unit. Recovers.

Case 6: a British passenger, symptom onset 27 April, confirmed on 6 May while under care in the Netherlands. Recovers. With cases 5 and 6 the Netherlands becomes the largest single reporting jurisdiction in the cluster.

Case 7: a Swiss passenger with symptom onset on 1 May, repatriated and admitted in Zurich, tests positive on 5 May. Switzerland is one of nine EU/EEA countries with passengers or crew aboard MV Hondius. The patient recovers.

The outbreak is formally identified on 4 May while MV Hondius lies off Praia, Cabo Verde (3–6 May), after the first positive Andes virus test links the two on-board deaths and the Johannesburg case to a single shipboard cluster. No passengers disembark at Praia. WHO and ECDC are notified on 2 May of a cluster of severe acute respiratory illness aboard the vessel; the ship is placed under maritime health control and routed to the Canary Islands.

Case 1 (index): a Dutch passenger, symptom onset 6 April, died aboard on 11 April and was landed at Saint Helena on 24 April, where the death was initially recorded as natural causes. He is retrospectively included in the outbreak count on 4 May once the cluster is recognised and the epidemiological link is established; no ante-mortem specimen was available for testing. First of the outbreak's three deaths.

Case 2: the spouse of the index case, a Dutch national, evacuated from Saint Helena to Johannesburg with symptom onset 24 April. She died on 26 April and tests positive post-mortem on 4 May. Her infection is the outbreak's first documented instance of Andes virus person-to-person transmission — the only hantavirus for which human-to-human spread is documented, and typically requiring close, prolonged contact with a symptomatic case. Second of the outbreak's three deaths.

Case 3: a British passenger who disembarked at Saint Helena and was evacuated to Johannesburg, South Africa, with symptom onset on 24 April, tests positive on 2 May — the first laboratory confirmation in the cluster. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases identifies an orthohantavirus, prompting the alert that leads to recognition of the MV Hondius outbreak two days later. The patient survives.