UN Health Agency Sees No Sign of Larger Hantavirus Outbreak

The final six passengers, four Australians, one Briton and one New Zealander, and some crew members left the ship on Monday. Overall, 122 passengers and crew of the MV Hondius have been repatriated to the Netherlands and their home countries on government-chartered flights over the past few days.

As of Monday evening, the ship's operator Oceanwide Expeditions said 27 people remained on board the ship, 25 crew members and two medical staff. These included 17 people from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands including the two medical staff, four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said the Ukrainians on board would help with the ship's transfer to the Netherlands and would quarantine at a medical facility on arrival. The Ukrainians had shown no signs of illness. Seventeen Filipino crew members arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday morning.

Spain's health ministry earlier said one Spaniard who is quarantining in Madrid after being evacuated from the vessel had also provisionally tested positive for hantavirus on Monday. A French official said a woman was isolating in Paris and that her health was deteriorating, with 22 contacts being traced.

The US health department said a second American national on Sunday's repatriation flight had also shown mild symptoms. Both passengers had travelled back in biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution. Two British nationals with confirmed cases are currently being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

An elderly Dutch man was the first passenger who died on board the MV Hondius on 11 April. He had earlier developed symptoms and is believed to have been the first infected in the outbreak but died before he could be tested. His wife left the ship on 24 April on the island of St Helena and flew to South Africa.

She died two days later in a clinic in Johannesburg. A German woman died on board the cruise ship on 2 May. Both women were confirmed cases. The MV Hondius had been carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries after departing from Ushuaia in Argentina on 1 April.

The Dutch-flagged vessel is expected to take six days to sail to Rotterdam and provisionally arrive on the evening of 17 May. Exact procedures upon arrival remain under discussion but the vessel will undergo sanitation. The World Health Organization previously said the risk of a major outbreak is very low.