Hantavirus, EU activates civil protection mechanism

This is the updated tally; six of the eight cases of suspected hantavirus reported on the cruise ship Hondius have been confirmed; these are the three deceased, two hospitalised in the Netherlands in Leiden and Nijmegen (among whom should be the ship's doctor) plus one Swiss in Zurich.

Among the two other suspected cases, one is hospitalised in Düsseldorf, Germany.

In a statement, the Dutch cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions announced that 'all passengers showing symptoms of hantavirus have been disembarked from the Hondius'.

But it must also be said that 'given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it is possible that further cases will be reported,' said Ghebreyesus (WHO).

the first case dates back to a man who developed symptoms on 6 April and deceased on 11 April, without any specific tests for hantavirus being carried out at the time.

The vessel set sail on 1 April 2026 from Ushuaia, Argentina.

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has informed 12 countries whose citizens disembarked" from the cruise ship MV Hondius "at St Helena. These 12 countries are: Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States'.

Tensions in Tenerife

Port workers in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, are planning to go on strike tomorrow to protest the arrival of the cruise ship Hondius scheduled for the night of Saturday to Sunday. This was announced by the union to the French broadcaster Bfmtv. An hour later ithe president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, announced that the ship will not dock in the port of Granadilla, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but 'will remain moored offshore, to allow the evacuation of passengers and subsequent transfer to the airport for repatriation. The evacuation of the passengers will take place with spears or a boat, which will pick them up for the transfer, in safety, to the airport' for repatriation, said Clavijo,

In addition, the government official reiterated that medical checks 'will be carried out on board and passengers will be disembarked for transfers and repatriations, with protective equipment, in a specific medical operation, in compliance with security protocols and without contact with the population'.

"Today the Commission hosted a meeting attended by Member States' health and civil protection authorities" to "provide the latest updates" on the hantavirus cases on board the Hondius and "ensure good coordination on issues such as repatriation, quarantine guidelines and risk communication". This was reported by an EU executive spokeswoman.

"The Commission has informed that the civil protection mechanism has been activated by Spain," he explained, adding that "further discussions will be held tomorrow to examine and define quarantine protocols and guidelines".

Argentinian officials and experts are scrambling to figure out whether their country was behind the hantavirus outbreak that hit the cruise ship Hondius in the Atlantic Ocean.

The health emergency on board the ship occurs as Argentina experiences a surgence of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the accelerating effects of climate change.

Argentina, from where the cruise departed, is regularly ranked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the country with the highest incidence of this rare rat-borne disease in Latin America.

On Tuesday, Argentina's Ministry of Health reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025. This is about twice as many cases as were recorded in the same period last year.

The possible reservoir of the Andean strain of the hantavirus first contracted by the two Dutch tourists on board the Hondius is an open-air dump at the entrance to Ushuaia - in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province - in the vicinity of which birdwatching enthusiasts are frequent. This was confirmed to Ansa by Gastón Bretti, a local photographer and guide, according to whom 'it is usual for enthusiasts to go to the dumps because there are many birds, generally necrophagous birds that feed on carrion'.

Argentine authorities called the possibility of the first Dutch case, a passenger on the MV Hondius suffering from a hantavirus outbreak, being infected during a 48-hour stay in Ushuaia before boarding 'practically nil'. "The possibility of contagion in Ushuaia is practically nil," Juan Petrina, health official for the province of Tierra del Fuego, told a press conference. "I cannot say this with absolute certainty, because it is a biological issue, but this is what emerges from the data we have collected" on the Dutch couple, their stay before boarding on 1 April and the appearance of the first symptoms at sea on 6 April.

Petrina also dismissed as 'rumour' the assumption that the couple had visited 'the dump' in Ushuaia, where the contamination may have occurred due to the presence of rodents. "For us, this remains a rumour. We have no official sources to confirm it."

It turns out on the other hand that the two Dutch tourists, in the weeks before embarking on the Mv Hondius in Ushuaia on 1 April, visited other areas of Argentina and Chile considered to be endemic to the Andean stock.