The MV Hondius cruise ship departs the port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Misper Apawu/AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — About 40 passengers on a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak previously disembarked on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena after the first passenger died, Dutch officials said Thursday.
The group included the wife of a Dutch man who died, the Dutch foreign ministry said. The cruise company said the Dutch woman disembarked the ship with her husband’s body at St. Helena, then flew on a commercial flight to South Africa and later died after collapsing at an airport in Johannesburg. The company had not previously acknowledged that others had left the ship at St. Helena.
Authorities in South Africa and Europe are attempting to trace contacts of passengers who disembarked there. It emerged Wednesday that a man in Switzerland tested positive for hantavirus after he also disembarked at St. Helena and returned home, though his exact movements have not been clarified.
Dutch officials did not confirm current locations of the other passengers who left at St. Helena. Separately, a British man was evacuated from the ship to South Africa from Ascension Island days later, the company said. Three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated near Cape Verde and taken to Europe for treatment on Wednesday.
Three passengers have died in the outbreak and several others are ill.