Geneva, 6 May

The cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, which is stuck off the coast of Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board, was waiting on Wednesday to head to Spain's Canary Islands.

Meanwhile, health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland identified a strain of the virus that can be transmitted between humans in rare cases.

Three passengers have died, and several others have been sickened by hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.

The ship left Argentina on 1 April on an Atlantic cruise and was scheduled to include stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other locations. However, the itinerary appears to have changed because of the situation on board.

The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said three patients with suspected hantavirus cases have been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to the Netherlands.

He said the UN health agency is working with the cruise ship's operators to monitor the health of passengers and crew closely.

“At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,” he wrote on his X account.

Among the patients is the ship's doctor, Spain's health ministry has said. The ministry said on Wednesday that the doctor, who was initially scheduled to be flown to the Canary Islands, is now being evacuated directly home to the Netherlands “after his health had improved."

Authorities in Switzerland also announced Wednesday that a man who returned from a trip to South America and travelled on the cruise ship has tested positive for the virus and is receiving treatment.

Spain's health ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that it would receive the MV Hondius vessel in the Canary Islands after a request from the World Health Organisation and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Despite some opposition from leaders in the region, the government insisted that it would ultimately make the call.

For now the luxury cruise ship remains marooned off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off West Africa in the Atlantic. The World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins.

South African tests first confirm the Andes virus

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South African health authorities said they identified the Andes strain of hantavirus in two passengers who were on the ship, and Swiss authorities said they identified the same virus in their affected patient.

The World Health Organization says the Andes virus, a specific species of hantavirus, is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile.

The Andes virus can be spread between people, though this is rare and the spread of the disease is typically contained because it would spread only through close contact, such as by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.

The South African Department of Health said its results came from tests performed on the passengers after they were removed from the ship and flown to South Africa.

One of the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care in a South African hospital. Tests were performed on the other passenger posthumously after she died in South Africa.

A Swiss man is infected

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A statement from the Federal Office of Public Health said that the man “returned to Switzerland after traveling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases.” It said his case also involved the Andes virus.

The Swiss health office initially said the patient hospitalized in Zurich had “returned from a trip to South America” with his wife at the end of April, without specifying. Simon Ming, a spokesperson for the office, clarified in an email that the patient got off during its stop in St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean.

It was not immediately clear when that was or how he was returned to Switzerland.

The patient's wife hasn't shown any symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, the statement said.

The public health office said that “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public.”

The WHO said in a social media post that the man responded to “an email from the ship's operator informing the passengers of the health event” and went to the hospital.

The cruise ship is waiting to sail to Spain

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The cruise ship will be welcomed to Spain's Canary Islands, according to Spanish authorities, as the vessel waited off the coast of West Africa for a third day Wednesday for sick passengers to be evacuated.

The regional president of Spain's Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday that he was worried the arrival of the ship could put the local population at risk and demanded an urgent meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

“Neither the populace nor the government of the Canary Islands can rest assured because it is clear that the danger to the population is real,” Clavijo told Onda Cero radio.

An altered journey

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The World Health Organisation has said the ship had an itinerary that included stops across the South Atlantic Ocean, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.

The cruise company has only announced some details of two stops: at St. Helena, where the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife also left the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa, where she died.

The company said a British man was later evacuated from the ship at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa, where he is in an intensive care unit.

The company has not said if other people left the cruise ship at those or other locations.