GENEVA, Switzerland – The World Health Organization issued an update Thursday on a rare hantavirus outbreak linked to the expedition cruise vessel MV Hondius, which has already claimed three lives. Officials have cautioned that additional cases may surface in the coming weeks, but expressed confidence that targeted public health precautions will keep the outbreak contained.\n\nThe incident has sparked global concern after three passengers tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus — a rare, human-to-human transmissible variant — and subsequently died. Early Thursday morning, a fourth ailing passenger from the ship disembarked in Europe, and the vessel is now en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, where all remaining crew and passengers will be evacuated upon its scheduled arrival Sunday in Tenerife. As of Thursday, the ship’s operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, confirmed no currently symptomatic people remain on board.\n\nDuring a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that the outbreak has so far produced five confirmed cases and three suspected cases, counting the three fatalities. “Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he explained. Shortly after the briefing, the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands confirmed that the recently disembarked sick passenger had returned a positive hantavirus test.\n\nDespite the possibility of new cases, WHO Emergency Alert and Response Director Abdi Rahman Mahamud struck a measured tone, noting: “We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.” Currently, people linked to the outbreak are receiving treatment or in isolation across five countries: Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa.\n\nUnlike COVID-19, hantavirus is primarily spread by infected rodents, though the Andes variant can spread between humans. The rare respiratory illness can trigger severe complications including respiratory failure, cardiac impairment, and hemorrhagic fever, and no vaccine or targeted cure exists for the disease. Epidemiologists trace the origin of the outbreak to an initial passenger who contracted the virus before boarding the MV Hondius in the Argentine coastal city of Ushuaia, where the ship departed on its voyage on April 1. The virus then spread to other passengers during the Atlantic crossing.\n\nThe timeline of the outbreak unfolded steadily over the past month. A Dutch man who boarded the ship in Ushuaia with his wife became the first fatality, dying aboard the vessel on April 11. His body was removed on April 24 at Saint Helena, a South Atlantic island where 29 other passengers also disembarked. His wife, who disembarked to accompany his body to South Africa, developed symptoms and died 15 days later; hantavirus was confirmed as her cause of death on May 4. A third fatality, a German passenger, died on May 2, and her body remains on the ship as it continues to Tenerife.\n\nInternational contact tracing efforts are now underway across more than a dozen countries. The WHO has notified 12 nations whose citizens disembarked at Saint Helena. The Dutch woman who died flew from Saint Helena to Johannesburg on a commercial Airlink flight while symptomatic, and health officials are currently working to identify and monitor all 82 passengers and six crew who were on that flight. Argentina’s health authorities are also planning to test wild rodent populations in Ushuaia to confirm the initial source of exposure, while Chilean health officials have ruled out local transmission for the two deceased Dutch passengers, noting their travel window did not align with the virus’s incubation period.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency confirmed two passengers who returned to the United Kingdom from the cruise have been advised to self-isolate, adding that both remain asymptomatic and the overall risk to the general UK public remains “very low.” Oceanwide Expeditions added that there were 149 people total on board the vessel, including 88 passengers, and the company is working to trace every passenger and crew member who has boarded or disembarked the ship since March 20.