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16 Jun 2026 · 20:03 UTC · Outbreak page

MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak

A cruise-ship hantavirus cluster, day by day.

The MV Hondius is a Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship. It departed Ushuaia, Argentina on 1 April 2026 with 147 people on board. What follows is a chronological reconstruction of the outbreak, drawn from the WHO Disease Outbreak News, the ECDC threat assessment, and reporting in the press. Each event links to its primary source.

Not medical advice. This page summarizes public reports. For authoritative, real-time information, see the WHO Disease Outbreak News.
The MV Hondius photographed in Magdalenefjord, Svalbard, June 2025.
MV Hondius. Photo: Stefan Brending (user 2eight), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE. Taken in Magdalenefjord, Svalbard, June 2025.

The vessel

Cases by country

ISO Country Conf. Susp. Deaths Status
NL Netherlands 4 1 2 4 confirmed (RIVM/WHO): 2 evacuated survivors + 1 on-board confirmed death (2 May) + 1 Dutch crew member who tested positive on 22 May in NL quarantine (RIVM and Erasmus MC weekly testing; announced by WHO DG Tedros), hospitalised in isolation as a precaution with GGD contact tracing. 2 on-board deaths attributed to NL as flag state — 1 confirmed, 1 probable index (11 Apr). MV Hondius docked at Rotterdam 18 May for decontamination; crew in Dutch quarantine; captain Jan Dobrogowski has since left the ship symptom-free (RIVM/WHO, 22 May). GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond declared the vessel disinfected and cleared it to return to service on 30 May; the ship resumed sailings on 13 June, its first post-outbreak voyage departing Longyearbyen, Svalbard with 137 passengers (NL Times, 12 June).
ZA South Africa 2 · 1 2 confirmed at NICD: 1 death Johannesburg (26 Apr), 1 survivor in ICU. 97 contacts traced (91 located); no local transmission (Mohale via Health-e, 12 May). Confirmed in WHO DON 604 (28 May).
ES Spain 2 · · 2 confirmed: the first an evacuee at Hospital Gómez Ulla, Madrid (Health Minister García, 11 May provisional → 12 May confirmed); a second Spanish national, a close contact already isolated at Gómez Ulla, tested positive on routine PCR testing, announced by Spain's Ministry of Health on 25 May (12 other Spanish evacuees remain in quarantine; authorities said it does not raise the risk to the general public). 2 earlier flight contacts (Alicante, Catalonia) PCR-negative (9 May).
CH Switzerland 1 · · 1 confirmed post-disembarkation (ECDC, 6 May).
FR France 1 · · 1 confirmed (Health Minister Rist, 11 May): woman in 60s on ECMO at Bichat Paris — Dr. Lescure called it final-stage supportive care (AP via SCMP, 12 May). 4 other evacuees PCR-negative; 22 flight contacts in 42-day hospital isolation.
CA Canada 1 · · 1 confirmed (PHAC/NML lab, 17 May): a Yukon resident from the 4-passenger Victoria, B.C. cohort; presumptive-positive 16 May (BC PHO Dr. Bonnie Henry), partner negative; ECDC classified confirmed (17 May). Other B.C. passengers and ON/QC flight contacts still monitored; risk low.
SH Saint Helena & Tristan da Cunha 1 · · 1 confirmed: British national on Tristan da Cunha (Hondius port call 13–15 Apr), previously a WHO probable case, reclassified as laboratory-confirmed after UKHSA laboratories returned a positive hantavirus result on samples collected in May; the person is clinically well at home on Tristan da Cunha and UKHSA stresses this confirms an existing case, not a new infection (UKHSA, 10 Jun). ECDC folded the reclassification into its 11 Jun daily tally (12 confirmed, 1 probable, 13 total). UK military airdrop 10 May.
SG Singapore · · · Both NCID-monitored residents PCR-negative (CDA, 8 May); 30-day quarantine continues.
GB United Kingdom · · · Contact monitoring. 2 British nationals with confirmed cases in ZA and NL hospitals — the British survivor previously hospitalised in the Netherlands has returned to England (UKHSA stresses this is not a new case; it was previously confirmed by WHO on 7 May). By 26 May, a further 6 evacuees had left Arrowe Park (Wirral) to complete 45-day isolation at home, taking the running total of Arrowe Park departures to 13+; Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA Deputy Director: 'the wider risk to the general public remains very low'. 1 symptomatic Ascension medic (samples negative) at Guy's and St Thomas' HCID unit (UKHSA, 26 May). On 2 June UKHSA cut the UK contact self-isolation period to 42 days (from 45) in line with WHO guidance and said UK treatment stocks had been bolstered by the antiviral favipiravir supplied by Japan (UKHSA, 2 June).
US United States · · · No cases. The previously inconclusive US case (Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, retired oncologist, Bend, Oregon) was confirmed negative; WHO removed it from the cluster count on 15 May, lowering the global total from 11 to 10 (WHO briefing, Maria Van Kerkhove, 15 May, via Al Jazeera) and the removal is now reflected in WHO DON 604 (28 May). 41 people under US monitoring (CDC briefing, 15 May): 18 cruise repatriates at Nebraska NQU (the 2 Emory Atlanta evacuees, both PCR-negative, transferred there 15 May; Emory cleared) + 7 former cruise passengers who departed before the outbreak + 16 travel-exposed (flights, including KLM Johannesburg–Amsterdam). On 19 May CDC Acting Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya signed formal federal quarantine orders for 2 of the 18 Nebraska passengers under the Public Health Service Act, requiring them to remain at the Omaha facility through 31 May (CDC, 19 May). CDC also issued Health Alert Network advisory HAN 529 on 18 May with expanded testing guidance for clinicians. On 27 May, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed a Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act declaration for medical countermeasures against Andes virus — narrowly scoped to favipiravir, voluntary administration, possible exposure to Andes virus, with the window ending 18 July 2026 (Federal Register doc 2026-10539, 27 May). No US positives. On 1 June, after that order period ended, the CDC let asymptomatic passengers who had not tested positive finish the 42-day quarantine (ending 22 June) at home under monitoring; 5 of the 18 left Omaha that day and 13 remained, with states posting law enforcement or public-health staff outside their homes (CDC via NBC News, 1 June). By 11 June, 10 of the 18 had left the Omaha unit to complete the 42-day monitoring (ending 22 June) at home and 8 remained, all symptom-free with no US positives (CDC situation summary / Nebraska Medicine, 11 June). Florida health officials said they would not implement the round-the-clock home surveillance the CDC requires for at-home monitoring, leaving one Florida passenger, Angela Perryman, 47, unable to leave the Omaha unit — "I'm being held hostage in this power struggle between a state and the federal government," she told NBC News (NBC News, 11 June). CDC EOC Level 3; 100+ staff on response.
AR Argentina · · · Investigation of possible exposure source. On 19 May, ANLIS Malbrán scientists set 150 box traps around Ushuaia and in Tierra del Fuego National Park to test rodents for Andes virus (AP via ABC News, 19 May). On 5 June the health ministry expanded the search to a second province, sending Malbrán teams with US CDC experts to trap and test rodents in Malargüe, Mendoza from 8 to 12 June; the Dutch couple who died had travelled through the Mendoza wine region before the cruise. The more than 100 Tierra del Fuego rodents from May remain under analysis in Buenos Aires, and Tierra del Fuego has recorded no hantavirus in 30 years of mandatory reporting, per Malbrán head Claudia Perandones (AP via ABC News, 5 June).
CL Chile · · · Investigation of possible exposure source (Hondius pre-boarding itinerary).
CV Cabo Verde · · · Ship anchored at Praia 3–6 May; no community transmission.
DE Germany · · · German national died on board 2 May (confirmed Andes per DON 600); death attributed to NL as flag state in WHO accounting (reaffirmed in DON 604, 28 May).
IT Italy · · · 4 people under Italian Health Ministry observation all PCR-negative (Italian Health Ministry via Reuters, 13 May); 42-day tele-monitoring continues.
AU Australia · · · 6 MV Hondius passengers (4 Australians, 1 Briton resident in Australia, 1 New Zealander) arrive Perth 15 May for a minimum 3-week quarantine (extendable to 42 days) at the 500-bed Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience adjacent to RAAF Base Pearce; all PCR-negative pre-flight; care overseen by NCCTRC (Darwin); Health Minister Mark Butler calls it 'one of the strongest quarantine arrangements... anywhere in the world' (AP via ABC News, 15 May).

Timeline

What WHO and ECDC have said

WHO published Disease Outbreak News 2026-DON601 on 13 May 2026 reporting 11 cases linked to MV Hondius — 8 laboratory-confirmed Andes virus, 2 probable and 1 inconclusive — with 3 deaths (2 confirmed and 1 probable). The inconclusive case is the US passenger at Nebraska Medicine's National Quarantine Unit whose initial overseas nasal-swab test was uncertain and whose confirmatory PCR on arrival in Nebraska returned negative (Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, identified by CNN, 13 May). The two probable cases are the index case (died on board 11 April, no laboratory samples obtained before death) and the British national on Tristan da Cunha. WHO now assesses the public health risk for those who were on board the cruise ship as moderate and at the global level as low; WHO advises against any travel or trade restrictions beyond the movement restriction of identified high-risk contacts. Through its 19 May daily update the ECDC tabulated 9 confirmed and 2 probable cases (11 total) with 3 deaths, having dropped the previously inconclusive US case after it was PCR-confirmed negative; ECDC continues to assess the EU/EEA risk as very low and on 19 May issued recommendations for self-quarantine for former passengers and crew. At a 15 May 2026 briefing the WHO lowered the cluster count to 10 (8 laboratory-confirmed and 2 probable) after the United States confirmed the previously inconclusive US case negative; the Public Health Agency of Canada lab-confirmed a Canadian case on 17 May 2026, and the WHO reassessed and kept the global risk low again on 17 May as MV Hondius completed its voyage (WHO and ECDC daily updates; PHAC via RTÉ, 15–18 May). On 22 May, WHO said the outbreak is stabilising, with no deaths since 2 May, and put the total at 12 after a Dutch crew member tested positive in quarantine in the Netherlands (RIVM and Erasmus MC, via Al Jazeera, 22 May). On 25 May, Spain's Ministry of Health confirmed a second Spanish case, a close contact already isolated at Gómez Ulla in Madrid who tested positive on routine PCR testing, taking the active cluster to 11 laboratory-confirmed and 2 probable (13 total), a count the ECDC carried in its 26 May daily update (Spain Ministry of Health via Euronews, 25 May; ECDC, 26 May). On 28 May, WHO published Disease Outbreak News 2026-DON604, the fourth update on the cluster: it reaffirms 13 cases and 3 deaths (case fatality ratio 23%), reports more than 600 contacts (53% high-risk, 47% low-risk) identified across 32 countries, territories and areas as of 22 May, and estimates the effective reproduction number at 0.7 — indicating declining transmission — while keeping public-health risk at moderate for those who were on board and low at the global level (WHO DON 604, 28 May). On 10 June, UKHSA laboratories reclassified the British national on Tristan da Cunha from probable to laboratory-confirmed after a positive result, and the ECDC's 11 June daily update carried the cluster as 12 laboratory-confirmed and 1 probable (13 total) with 3 deaths and EU/EEA risk still very low (UKHSA, 10 June; ECDC, 11 June). DON 604 supersedes DON 601 (13 May) which itself superseded the WHO Madrid press conference tally of 12 May 2026 (9 confirmed and 2 suspected, 11 total) and DON 600 (8 May 2026: 8 cases with 6 lab-confirmed and 2 probable). On 13 May, the Italian Health Ministry confirmed that all four people in Italy under hantavirus observation had tested negative (Italian Health Ministry via Reuters, 13 May). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Maria Van Kerkhove framed the cluster on 7 May as fundamentally different from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; WHO reaffirmed the wider outbreak risk as "absolutely low" on 8 May after a KLM flight attendant in close contact with the index case tested negative.

The underlying formal assessments: the WHO assessed the global risk as low on 4 May in Disease Outbreak News 2026-DON599, reaffirmed it on 8 May in DON 600, and reaffirmed the global-level assessment again on 13 May in DON 601 while upgrading the assessment for those who were on board to moderate; the ECDC assessed the EU/EEA risk as very low on 6 May, noting that the natural rodent reservoir of Andes virus is not present in Europe, and continues to report EU/EEA risk as very low through its 11 June daily update, which reflects the reclassification of the Tristan da Cunha case from probable to laboratory-confirmed (12 confirmed and 1 probable, 13 total). Both agencies emphasize that person-to-person transmission of Andes virus is rare and requires close, sustained contact.

Evacuation at Tenerife

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus traveled to Tenerife on 9 May to personally oversee the evacuation, publishing a direct message to the island's residents confirming the risk to their daily lives is low and that no symptomatic passengers remain on board (WHO, 9 May). MV Hondius arrived at the port of Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, in the early hours of 10 May. Passengers disembarked in groups via launch boats, starting with Spanish nationals; approximately 30 crew members remained on board to sail the vessel to the Netherlands for decontamination. Spain deployed Civil Guard at the port on 9 May in preparation, coordinating repatriation flights for passengers of 22 nationalities. Spanish nationals quarantined at Madrid's Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla (Spain Ministry of Health, 8 May). The UK FCDO chartered a dedicated repatriation flight; British passengers were repatriated to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral for health assessments before beginning 45-day home isolation (UKHSA, 9 May). The US CDC dispatched teams to the Canary Islands; approximately 17 Americans were evaluated at the National Quarantine Unit at Nebraska Medicine — CDC confirmed no mandatory quarantine, with a voluntary 42-day home monitoring option (CDC, 9 May). Contact tracing is active in more than a dozen countries; all contacts are monitored for 45 days given the extended hantavirus pulmonary syndrome incubation period.

By midday on 10 May, 46 passengers from Spain, France, Canada and the Netherlands had disembarked; Spain's Minister of Health Monica Garcia confirmed all remaining passengers on board were asymptomatic at that point. Day 1 evacuations concluded with 94 people of 19 nationalities disembarked in total. Eighteen evacuees — 17 US nationals and one British US resident — departed Tenerife on a CDC/HHS charter flight to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha. During the French repatriation flight, one of five returning French nationals began showing symptoms; French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced all five were placed in strict isolation and transferred by ambulance to Bichat Hospital, Paris, for 72-hour hospitalisation followed by 45-day home quarantine (CBS News, 10 May). On 11 May, two of the 18 American-side arrivals were transferred from Nebraska Medicine's National Quarantine Unit to Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit in Atlanta — one symptomatic individual to the biocontainment unit and one asymptomatic close contact for evaluation (CBS News, 11 May). Later the same day, MV Hondius departed Granadilla de Abona for Rotterdam with a 25-strong skeleton crew (17 Filipino, 4 Dutch including 2 medical staff, 4 Ukrainian, 1 Russian and 1 Polish), carrying the body of a passenger who died on board and expected to arrive on 17 May for full disinfection per Oceanwide Expeditions (RTÉ, 11 May).

Separately, on 10 May the UK military conducted an emergency airdrop on Tristan da Cunha, where a British national was suspected of hantavirus with oxygen supplies at critical levels. A RAF A400M aircraft parachuted 6 paratroopers and 2 military clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade onto the island along with 3.3 tonnes of medical supplies — the first British military humanitarian parachute deployment (UK Government, 10 May).

The voyage concludes at Rotterdam

MV Hondius concluded its seven-week voyage on 18 May 2026 and docked at the port of Rotterdam, where the vessel was decontaminated under Dutch public-health guidelines. The 25 crew members and two medical staff who remained aboard entered Dutch quarantine on arrival. Oceanwide Expeditions said the ship could resume sailings the following month subject to a public-health inspection (Irish Times via AFP, 18 May). In a 26 May press update (16:30 CET), Oceanwide Expeditions said the planned departure of MV Hondius from Rotterdam to Vlissingen had been delayed following advice from GGD Rotterdam for additional cleaning; GGD will conduct a final inspection before the vessel can depart, and all voyages from 13 June onwards are expected to proceed as scheduled (Oceanwide Expeditions, 26 May). On 29 May the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond conducted that final inspection and on 30 May cleared MV Hondius to return to service, declaring the vessel effectively cleaned and disinfected with no public-health objections; Oceanwide Expeditions said its EWS Group contractor had finished deep cleaning and disinfecting all eight decks, and the ship transited to Longyearbyen, Svalbard on 6 June; its first post-outbreak voyage departed Longyearbyen on 13 June with 137 passengers on a seven-day Arctic expedition, a doctor aboard as an added precaution (Oceanwide Expeditions, 1 June; NL Times, 12 June). The WHO had reassessed the public health risk a day before docking, on 17 May 2026, and kept the global risk low, noting that further cases may still occur among passengers and crew exposed before containment while the risk of onward transmission is reduced following disembarkation and the implementation of control measures (WHO via RTÉ/AFP, 17 May).

Investigation and post-disembarkation surveillance

With the active phase of the cluster closed, attention turned to the origin investigation and to surveillance of disembarked passengers and crew. On 19 May, scientists from Argentina's ANLIS Malbrán Institute set 150 box traps in the forests around Ushuaia and in Tierra del Fuego National Park to test rodents for Andes virus; provincial health-ministry spokesperson Martín Alfaro told the Associated Press the province had never previously conducted such testing and that ruling out local transmission was important; samples will be analysed at Malbrán's Buenos Aires laboratory with results expected within about a month (AP via ABC News, 19 May). On 5 June, Argentina expanded the origin search to a second province: ANLIS Malbrán scientists, working with US CDC experts, will trap and test rodents in Malargüe, Mendoza from 8 to 12 June, a wine region the Dutch couple who died had travelled through before boarding; the more than 100 rodents trapped in Tierra del Fuego in May remain under analysis in Buenos Aires, and Tierra del Fuego has recorded no hantavirus in 30 years of mandatory reporting, per Malbrán head Claudia Perandones (AP via ABC News, 5 June). The same day in the United States, CDC Acting Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya signed formal federal quarantine orders for 2 of the 18 MV Hondius passengers at Nebraska Medicine's National Quarantine Unit, under the Public Health Service Act and 42 CFR parts 70 and 71; the shift from voluntary monitoring to legally binding quarantine came after additional non-US passengers tested positive, per CDC officials, and requires all 18 to remain at the Omaha facility through 31 May (CDC, 19 May). CDC had also issued Health Alert Network advisory HAN 529 on 18 May, a Health Update expanding testing guidance for clinicians beyond the original HAN 528 of 8 May (CDC HAN 529). On 20 May the WHO opened a public-facing knowledge series on the cluster, hosting the first "Hantavirus in Focus" scientific webinar with Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez and Dr. Boris Pavlin from WHO, Spain's Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla Bernáldez, and UKHSA Deputy Director Prof. Richard Amlot for surveillance updates, country perspectives and a public Q&A (WHO event listing, 20 May). On 22 May, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak is stabilising, with no deaths since 2 May, and confirmed a 12th case: a Dutch crew member who tested positive in quarantine in the Netherlands, hospitalised in isolation as a precaution after RIVM and Erasmus MC weekly testing of quarantined people; the ship's captain, Jan Dobrogowski, has left the MV Hondius symptom-free (RIVM and WHO via Al Jazeera, 22 May). On 25 May, Spain's Ministry of Health confirmed a second Spanish national from the ship, a close contact already isolated at Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla in Madrid who tested positive on routine PCR testing, taking the cluster to 11 laboratory-confirmed Andes virus cases and 2 probable (13 total); the ECDC carried that count in its 26 May daily update, with EU/EEA risk still very low (Spain Ministry of Health via Euronews, 25 May; ECDC, 26 May). On 1 June, with the 31 May federal-order period over, the CDC allowed asymptomatic Nebraska passengers who had not tested positive to finish the 42-day quarantine (ending 22 June) at home under monitoring; 5 of the 18 left the Omaha National Quarantine Unit that day and 13 remained, with states stationing law enforcement or public-health staff outside the released passengers' homes (CDC via NBC News, 1 June). By 11 June, 10 of the 18 had left the Omaha unit to finish the 42-day monitoring (ending 22 June) at home and 8 remained, all symptom-free with no US positives; Florida health officials said they would not implement the round-the-clock home surveillance the CDC requires, leaving one Florida passenger unable to leave the Omaha unit (CDC situation summary, 11 June; NBC News, 11 June).

Last rebuilt 16 Jun 2026 · 20:03 UTC. Each timeline event and country row links to its primary source.