Flight attendant hospitalized as cruise ship hantavirus fallout grows

AMSTERDAM - A flight attendant who briefly came into contact with a victim of the hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius cruise ship has been admitted to hospital in Amsterdam, the Dutch Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The woman is showing light symptoms and has been isolated from other patients at the clinic, where she is being tested for hantavirus, the ministry said.

Three people have died linked to an outbreak on the Hondius, a small cruise ship with under 150 people on board that set off from southern Argentina in early April.

The ship was anchored off the shore of Cape Verde for several days as news of the hantavirus outbreak emerged and is currently en route to Spain's Canary Islands off the West African coast.

A German woman and a Dutch man died aboard the ship, while the man's 69-year-old wife left the ship and attempted to return to the Netherlands before she passed away in hospital in South Africa.

She boarded a KLM flight in Johannesburg on April 25, but was removed from the flight ahead of departure due to her bad state of health, according to the airline. She passed away a day later in hospital in Johannesburg.

The flight attendant was on board the flight that travelled on to the Amsterdam after the woman left the aircraft.

Dutch authorities have said they are in contact with all passengers aboard the plane, who are being tested regularly.

Meanwhile, another ill crew member evacuated from the Hondius arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday and was brought to hospital, according to Dutch authorities.

Three people were evacuated from the cruise ship on Wednesday, including two ill crew members - a 56-year-old British man and a 41-year-old Dutch man - as well as a 65-year-old German woman, a passenger.

A first evacuation plane carrying two of them landed in Amsterdam on Wednesday evening, while the second flight had to make a landing on the Canary Islands due to technical issues and was only able to resume the journey to the Netherlands early on Thursday.

The German woman has been brought to a clinic in Dusseldorf. She is not showing symptoms but had been in close contact with the German woman who died aboard the Hondius on May 2.

Operator: 29 passengers disembarked on St Helena

Efforts to contain the outbreak have been complicated by a statement from the Dutch operator of the cruise ship, Oceanwide Expeditions, confirming 29 passengers - as well as the dead Dutch man - disembarked from the Hondius on the British Atlantic island of St Helena on April 24.

"These disembarked guests have all been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions," the operator said.

One passenger of the cruise ship has tested positive for hantavirus following his return to Switzerland, where he is being treated at the Zurich University Hospital.

Meanwhile, two people who returned to the U.K. from the Hondius are also self-isolating.

Hantavirus can cause fever and severe respiratory illness in humans, with infection typically occurring through exposure to the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents.

Human-to-human transmission is rare, according to the WHO, but can occur in the Andes variant that has been identified in some of the cases.

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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 6:52 AM.