hantavirus | DD News

May 22, 2026 5:21 PM

Inside an African lab that helped crack the hantavirus outbreak

The call for help came in early May: a cruise ship off Cape Verde was stranded, with passengers suspected of infection by a deadly strain of hantavirus that kills about one in three of its victims. The vessel had stopped at several remote islands, and the World Health Organization needed answers. Could a biomedical research center in Senegal, an hour's flight away, support a team collecting specimens from suspected cases on board? The plane landed in Senegal in the early hours of May 5. At the...

May 19, 2026 11:18 AM

Britain gets experimental drug from Japan to bolster hantavirus response

Britain has received supplies of the antiviral drug favipiravir from Japan as part of its response to a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the Hondius cruise liner, the UK Health Security Agency said on Monday. UKHSA said it accepted delivery of the drug, which remains experimental for use to treat hantavirus, over the weekend and that the supplies would bolster treatment stocks, even though the risk of wider transmission in the UK remained very low. Neither the UKHSA nor Japanese authoritie...

May 18, 2026 1:55 PM

Hantavirus-hit cruise ship arrives at Rotterdam port as final destination

A luxury liner at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus reached the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, marine tracking sites said, where authorities prepared quarantine arrangements for the 23 crew and two medical staff remaining on board. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius had been carrying around 150 passengers and crew from ⁠23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2. Three people - a Dutch couple and a German na...

May 13, 2026 3:37 PM

Italy says four people quarantined for hantavirus have all tested negative

Four people who have been under observation in Italy for possible hantavirus infection have all tested negative, the Italian health ministry said on Wednesday. Tests were conducted on an Argentine tourist hospitalised with pneumonia, a man from the southern Italian region of Calabria who was in voluntary isolation, a British tourist located in Milan and a companion travelling with him. Tests conducted in hospitals in Rome and Milan came up negative for all four people, the health ministry stat...

May 12, 2026 12:50 PM

Planes with hantavirus cruise passengers land in the Netherlands; hospital quarantines 12

Two planes with 28 passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by a hantavirus outbreak, landed in the Netherlands on Tuesday and a Dutch hospital treating a hantavirus patient quarantined 12 staffers in a preventative measure. The planes landed at Eindhoven Airport shortly after midnight, carrying eight Dutch nationals. Other passengers of different nationalities will continue on to their home countries from the Netherlands, authorities previously said. The Dutch hospital staff ...

May 12, 2026 11:44 AM

EU coordinates response to Hantavirus outbreak

The European Commission said it is coordinating and supporting national authorities in responding to the hantavirus outbreak, while the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control assessed the risk to the general population in Europe as “very low.” Since Spain activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on May 6, the EU's Emergency Response Coordination Centre has been facilitating the safe evacuation of people aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was anchored off Tenerife. Five...

May 12, 2026 9:46 AM

Hantavirus Alert: Dutch Hospital Places 12 Staff Members in Quarantine

Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc) in the Netherlands has placed 12 employees in quarantine for six weeks as a precaution after incorrect procedures were followed while caring for a patient infected with hantavirus. The hospital said on Monday that the issue involved procedures for drawing and processing blood samples, as well as the disposal of the patient's urine, reports Xinhua news agency. "This blood was processed according to standard procedure. Due to the nature of the virus...

May 11, 2026 10:47 PM

Last 6 passengers ready to leave Hantavirus-hit ship; captain praises their patience

The last six passengers and some of the crew of the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius anchored off Tenerife were readying to disembark on Monday as the ship's captain praised their patience and discipline during an "extremely challenging" few weeks. The final passengers - four Australians, one Briton who lives in Australia and a New Zealander - were waiting to be taken off the MV Hondius, a polar expedition ship, in small boats for transfer to Tenerife where a flight would take them to the Netherlands ...

May 11, 2026 2:46 PM

Two test positive as evacuation of virus-hit cruise ship nears completion

Two people have tested positive for hantavirus after being evacuated from a luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak, health authorities said, as Spain prepared on Monday to evacuate and repatriate the last passengers remaining on the vessel. A French passenger who was evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the virus and her condition is deteriorating, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Monday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Sunday that one of...

May 11, 2026 9:19 AM

Australia to repatriate passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

The Australian government said on Monday it would repatriate its citizens from a Dutch-flagged luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly strain of hantavirus, with the passengers to be quarantined after they arrive in the country. Spain and France have evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which has anchored near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, officials said, with flights to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States slated to have left by Sunday nigh...