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Health officials track dozens who left hantavirus-stricken ship after 1st fatality - AP News

From Associated Press via USVI News: Oceanwide Expeditions has revealed that 30 passengers disembarked from its cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak on April 24. They left the ship on the remote island of St. Helena, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died. The company had previously.

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Health officials track dozens who left hantavirus-stricken ship after first fatality

Despite a cruise ship outbreak of a rare rodent-borne illness, global health officials say the risk to the general public remains low because hantavirus germs do not easily spread between people. (AP Video/Mary Conlon)

A top epidemic expert at the U.N. health agency said Wednesday that the hantavirus outbreak is not the next COVID pandemic. The vessel at the center of a deadly outbreak remained off Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board waiting to head to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Giulia Gallo, Postdoctoral Scientist in the Viral Glycoproteins Group at The Pirbright Institute told The Associated Press that “the most important thing is not to create panic” as the transmission rate for the virus is very low. Three passengers have died and several others have been sickened by hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship, which is stuck off the coast of Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board and was waiting Wednesday to head to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their 14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest. On January 1, they rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a hantavirus test came back positive. (AP video shot by Victor R. Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef)

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise. (AP video shot Victor R. Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

The MV Hondius cruise ship departs the port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Medical personnel in hazmat suits wait for patients, evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Health workers get off the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people as it remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato via AP)

A view of the m/v Hondius Cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)

This article is republished through the USVI News affiliate desk. Reporting, analysis, and viewpoints are those of the original publisher and do not necessarily reflect USVI News.

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