Race to hint dozens of people that had been on flight with Dutch cruise ship passenger who died after touchdown – amid recent warnings rat virus could possibly be being handed from individual to individual

Dozens of people are being traced after they boarded a flight with a cruise ship passenger who later died of a rat–borne virus.

The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday following the outbreak of a rare hantavirus infection.

Although the disease is typically spread by rodents through urine, droppings and saliva the World Health Organisation (WHO) has now said it believes it may have passed from person to person aboard the luxury cruise.

The WHO has confirmed seven suspected cases of the virus on the vessel, which had been travelling from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde in Africa.

A 70–year–old passenger was the first to die followed by his 69–year–old wife. They were both Dutch nationals.

Another passenger of German nationality also died on board the ship. 

A 69–year–old British man was taken to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he is being treated in intensive care.

The WHO said today it is attempting to locate people on a flight between the island of St Helena and Johannesburg taken by the Dutch woman – who later died of the virus.

She had left the ship in Saint Helena with ‘gastrointestinal symptoms’ on April 24 and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the emergency department of a Johannesburg hospital.

The WHO said: ‘Contact tracing for passengers has been initiated.’

Airlink operates one flight a week from the island, which takes around four hours.

The South African authorities had asked the airline to notify the passengers that they must contact the health department, a representative said.

The WHO said it suspected hantavirus may have spread between people aboard the ship.

Three suspected hantavirus cases still on the stricken ship off Cape Verde will be evacuated in the coming hours in two air ambulances via the west African island nation.

One of the air ambulances is already in the Atlantic archipelago located off West Africa and the second aircraft is expected to arrive shortly, Cape Verde’s health ministry said.

Once the two symptomatic hantavirus sufferers and a close contact with no symptoms have been successfully evacuated, the MV Hondius ‘can continue its route’, either to Spain’s Canary Islands or the Netherlands, the UN health agency’s Cape Verde representative, Ann Lindstrand said.

Spain has confirmed it will receive a cruise ship stricken by the deadly virus in ‘three to four days’, in the Canary Islands.

‘The exact port of arrival has not yet been determined,’ it said, adding: ‘Once there, the crew and passengers will be duly examined, cared for, and transferred to their respective countries’. 

According to Ms Lindstrand, an ambulance will take the suspected infected trio from the port in the Cape Verdean capital, Praia, to the nearby airport, from which they will be evacuated by plane.

While the situation is ‘changing by the hour’, Lindstrand said once that ‘complicated expedition’ had been carried out, ‘what I know now is that the boat will be able to leave sometime in the middle of the night’.

Although ‘the initial plan was for the boat to leave from here to the Canary Islands to the Tenerife port’, the Dutch–operated cruise ship could end up back in the Netherlands instead, she added.

‘There has been discussions during the day today that the boat might be sent all the way to the Netherlands,’ she said.

It comes as new footage from inside the MV Hondius showed nearly 150 people had been mostly confined to their cabins.

The luxury ship has been stranded at the Port of Praia after health authorities in Cape Verde said they would not authorise its docking ‘with the aim of protecting national public health’.

Footage showed the ship’s decks mostly deserted, with only a few people wearing medical masks moving around.

Common spaces were empty as passengers isolated in their cabins. At least five people with full protective gear, white overalls, boots and face masks, were seen disembarking from the ship into a small vessel.

The World Health Organization said on Monday passengers were asked to stay in their cabins and ‘limit their risk while disinfection and other measures are being taken’.

In its latest update on the crisis, cruise firm Oceanwide Expeditions said on Monday two crew members – one British and the other Dutch – were continuing to show ‘acute respiratory symptoms’, one mild and one severe, and required urgent medical care.

The infected British crew member is the ship’s doctor, according to passenger Ann Lane from Donnybrook, south Dublin.

‘Now the ship’s doctor and a member of the expedition staff are sick on board. The doctor had been treating everybody day and night, really dedicated to what he was doing – [he has been] fabulous,’ she told the Irish Times.

‘He’s a younger man, British. He has been sick quite a few days, maybe since last Thursday.’

Medics are scrambling to evacuate the sick passengers with two specialised aircraft, but an ‘accurate timeline of this complex operation is currently unknown’ and the mission is still ‘not confirmed and is subject to change’.

Meanwhile, ‘a definitive disembarkation point for the remaining guests on board has not been finalised’, the statement said, leaving 149 people from 23 countries anxiously waiting to learn their fate.

According to the UK Government’s hantavirus advice, symptoms typically appear anywhere from two to four weeks, but can range from two days to eight weeks after exposure, meaning illness may develop in other passengers in the coming days or weeks.

Around 40 per cent of cases result in death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Hantaviruses – a family of viruses – are spread by rodents, in particular through contact with their urine, droppings and saliva.

They are known to cause a range of diseases in humans ranging from mild, flu–like illness to severe respiratory illness or haemorrhagic disease.

Early symptoms can include fatigue, fever, muscle aches and intense headaches.

They are not usually spread person–to–person and are typically only transferred via bodily fluids and close contact. 

The risk of contracting the illness can be reduced through minimising contact with rodents.

Meanwhile, the UK Government is putting ‘plans in place’ for the onward travel of Britons stuck aboard the cruise ship, the Prime Minister said.

In a post on X, Sir Keir Starmer explained: ‘My thoughts are with those affected by the hantavirus outbreak onboard the MV Hondius.

‘We are working closely with international partners to support British nationals on board and we’re putting plans in place for their safe onward travel.

‘The risk to the wider public remains very low – protecting the British people is our number one priority.’