New suspected cases of hantavirus detected in Spain and Tristan da Cunha: what is known

Six cases of hantavirus have been confirmed on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which previously had a hantavirus outbreak, and two new suspected cases have been identified in Spain and Tristan da Cunha. The outbreak has killed three people and the WHO continues to assess the risks of further spread.

This is reported by Reuters .

According to the World Health Organization, 8 people have fallen ill aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. 6 of them have already been confirmed to have hantavirus, which can be a deadly disease.

The WHO said the outbreak is linked to Andes virus, the only type of hantavirus that can be transmitted between people through prolonged and close contact.

“Based on the dynamics of this outbreak and how it is spreading and not spreading among people on the ship and those who have already left the ship, we continue to assess the risk to the general population as low,” said Anais Legand, WHO’s technical specialist on viral threats.

It is reported that new suspected infections were recorded in a 32-year-old woman in the Spanish province of Alicante and a man on the British island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.

According to Spanish authorities, the woman was sitting on the plane 2 rows away from a Dutch citizen who was on board the plane and later died in a hospital in South Africa.

The British Health Safety Agency reported that the man on Tristan da Cunha was also a passenger on the MV Hondius while the ship was in the region from 13 to 15 April 2026. As of 9 May 2026, 4 infected people remain in hospitals in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The cruise ship is heading to the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where passengers and crew are scheduled to be screened before disembarking in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO and other health services.

Journalists noted that there were 147 passengers and crew members on board, including 17 U.S. citizens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the American passengers would be taken on a special medical flight to Omaha for quarantine upon their return.

At the same time, the WHO emphasized that hantavirus is not easily transmitted, and the risk of large-scale spread of the disease is currently assessed as low.

Recall that a cruise ship MV Hondius in the Atlantic Ocean has experienced a suspected outbreak of a rare hantavirus , resulting in the deaths of 3 people and the illness of at least 3 others. One of the patients is in intensive care in South Africa, and the WHO is conducting an epidemiological investigation.

Earlier, a new outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus was recorded in India . 5 cases of infection were confirmed, and almost 100 people were sent to home quarantine.

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