TWO RAT-VIRUS SHIP PASSENGERS SELF-ISOLATING IN BRITAIN
Two British passengers who were aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are self-isolating at home, health officials have said.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the pair had been on the MV Hondius, but did not have symptoms.
The British passengers and 21 others left St Helena, where the ship docked from April 22-24, and flew from Johannesburg back to their home countries or on to other holiday destinations.
At least one of those passengers who disembarked at the end of the first leg of the cruise has since tested positive for the virus. The Swiss man, who had been holidaying with his wife, remained in hospital in Zurich on Wednesday night.
The couple was among 23 people who had travelled – across Europe, Australia, Asia and the US – after the cruise and were initially not required to self-isolate or undergo health checks, a fellow passenger revealed.
“There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” the passenger told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
“The Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes ... I don’t remember the rest.”
The Swiss man reported that he had symptoms after the cruise ship operator contacted returned passengers, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday night.
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said: “The patient had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event.
“In line with the International Health Regulations, WHO is working with relevant countries to support international contact tracing, to ensure that those potentially exposed are monitored and that any further disease spread is limited.”
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was monitoring returned passengers – two in the state of Georgia, one in Arizona and an undisclosed number in California. None had displayed symptoms of hantavirus, The New York Times reported.
A spokesman for Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade (DFAT) said it was “aware of four Australians aboard the MV Hondius” but not aware of any “affected” by the outbreak. The Australian health department and DFAT did not comment when asked to clarify whether Australians had returned home and whether contact-tracing was under way.
Health authorities have stressed that there is minimal risk to the broader public. But the timing of virus notifications and contact-tracing has raised concern among passengers, after it emerged the holidaymakers who disembarked at St Helena had flown home unaware they had spent weeks on the ship with confirmed hantavirus cases and could also be infectious.
“We were in touch with them and kept asking ourselves, ‘When are they going to tell them something?’ Some people weren’t contacted until yesterday,” said the passenger who spoke to El Pais.
“[The Swiss passenger] wasn’t feeling well, went to the hospital and this morning tested positive.”
A 70-year-old Dutchman died on April 11 after contracting hantavirus during his holiday – almost two weeks before the St Helena stop. His wife, who disembarked with his body when the ship docked at St Helena, was also unwell during the cruise and died in a Johannesburg hospital.
The crew initially told passengers the vessel was not infectious. By Wednesday, the WHO had reported eight cases of hantavirus connected to the ship, including five which had yet to be confirmed by laboratory testing.
The Telegraph revealed that Martin Anstee, a 56-year-old British expedition guide, was one of three suspected hantavirus patients who had been removed from the vessel on Wednesday morning.
His wife told The Telegraph that it had been a “very traumatic few days” for his family, but added that they were relieved he was now in a stable condition.
Mr Anstee is being treated for the virus in an Amsterdam hospital after he was airlifted off the ship.
Three people – the Dutch couple and a German woman – have died from the illness so far.
More than 20 British passengers are stuck on the Dutch-flagged vessel, which left Cape Verde on Wednesday night after being anchored there under lockdown for three days.
The remaining British nationals aboard the vessel would be evacuated “once the ship docks at its next destination if they do not develop symptoms,” UKHSA said.
“None of the British citizens onboard are currently reporting symptoms but they are being closely monitored.”
Those who returned to the UK contacted health officials when they heard of the cases on the ship. Their contacts were being traced, but the risk to the wider public was “very low”, officials said.
UKHSA said it was “supporting a small number of individuals identified as close contacts of those on the boat”.
“They are being offered support and are also self-isolating,” the organisation said. “None are reporting any symptoms. The risk to the general public remains very low.
“UKHSA is working closely with the FCDO [Foreign Office], the Home Office and Border Force to trace further individuals who may have been on the same flight as a confirmed case, in order to carry out public health risk assessments and ensure appropriate precautionary measures are in place.”
Prof Jonathan Ball, the deputy vice-chancellor and a professor of molecular virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the response “seems like a balanced approach”. He said available evidence suggested human-to-human transmission was possible, “but the risk is low and requires very close contact”.
“Self-isolation, and monitoring for the appearance of any virus-like symptoms – for example fever and aches – together with repeat testing over several weeks will help ensure early detection and prevent any risk of onward infection,” Prof Ball said.
“But hopefully these two people have not been infected, and this turns out to be wise, albeit inconvenient, precaution.”
Spain’s health ministry said evacuation from the cruise ship would begin on Monday. Ministry sources said that “all the passengers will remain on the cruise ship until the arrival of their planes”.
Two evacuation flights took place on Wednesday, including one that flew Mr Anstee to Amsterdam where he remained in hospital. Another stopped off in the Canary Islands to refuel after Morocco refused permission for it to land.
A Dutch doctor, 41, and a German passenger, 65, were also airlifted from the vessel.
Mr Anstee told Sky News from his hospital bed: “I’m doing okay. 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.”
The Foreign Office said it was “working urgently” to help bring other British passengers “safely home with proper protection for public health”.
Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, said: “The outbreak of hantavirus is very serious and deeply stressful for those affected and their families.”
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, added: “The outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius will be worrying many. The Government are taking this incredibly seriously and are working urgently to support the British nationals involved.
“We are working across DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care], UKHSA and the FCDO to ensure all those affected get home safely.”
Dr Meera Chand, the deputy director for epidemic and emerging infections at UKHSA, said: “Our thoughts are with all those affected by the hantavirus outbreak onboard the MV Hondius.
“We are standing up arrangements to support, isolate and monitor British nationals from the ship on their return to the UK and we are contact-tracing anyone who may have been in contact with the ship or the hantavirus cases to limit the risk of onward transmission.
“UKHSA will continue to work closely with government partners to offer all necessary support.”
A spokesman added that “up to eight weeks” of isolation was needed after exposure to the virus.
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Pictured: British ex-police officer evacuated from rat-virus ship
WHO has launched a test-and-trace campaign to track members of the public who may have interacted with those infected.
The South African health ministry said officials had traced 42 out of 62 people they believed had contact with the two infected passengers who travelled there, the Associated Press reported.
The virus was confirmed to be the Andes virus, a type of hantavirus typically found in South America, the WHO announced on Wednesday.
Investigators suspect the first passengers to contract the illness probably caught it while bird-watching in Ushuaia, located off Argentina’s southern coast.
Two Argentine officials looking into the origins of the outbreak said their strongest theory was that the Dutch victims, who had travelled through Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before boarding, visited a landfill site during their ornithological tour, where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.
Scientists have said the culprit may be the long-tailed pygmy rice rat, which is native to Argentina and Chile.
The Spanish health ministry’s announcement on Tuesday night that the ship would dock in the Canary Islands caused a row with the archipelago’s president, who said he would refuse to let it do so.
Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the islands, said he worried about the danger to the population and demanded a meeting with Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister.
Jorge Marichal, the president of Tenerife’s hotels’ association, said that competing tourist destinations such as Morocco should have “been taken into account” when considering a location for passengers to disembark.
Argentina’s health ministry will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in Ushuaia and is trying to reconstruct the Dutch couple’s itinerary.
2026-05-06T20:00:34Z
