STORY: :: May 6, 2026
Contact tracing is underway to track those who have already disembarked a cruise ship hit by an outbreak of the hantavirus before it was detected, and anyone in close contact with them since.
Oceanwide Expeditions said they were now working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops since March 20.
Three people - a Dutch couple and a German national - died in the outbreak on the cruise ship.
The World Health Organization said that, in total, five people are confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another three suspected cases.
"This is not coronavirus; this is a very different virus. We know this virus. Hantavirus has been around for a while."
:: Luxembourg Air Rescue crew
Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents.
Experts have stressed that contagion is very rare, but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert.
"No, I think people don't need to worry."
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit is a virologist at Germany's Bernhard Nocht Institute.
"A cruise ship is really different from the situation on the land or in the hospital, so it's a real incubator. You have less space, and the contacts are more close, so the probability of transmission is much higher if you are not aware that there is a highly infectious pathogen." //" But if the patients are outside of the ship, so under barrier nursing and hospital conditions like in Germany, Netherlands, or Spain, I would say everybody is safe, so it's not a risk for the whole population."
The Dutch couple who died, believed to be the first hantavirus cases of this outbreak, only boarded on April 1.
Dutch airline KLM on Wednesday said it had taken the Dutch woman off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25 due to her deteriorating medical condition.
She died before she could reach the Netherlands.
On Thursday, broadcaster RTL reported that a KLM stewardess who had been in contact with her has been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam after showing possible hantavirus symptoms.
The Dutch health ministry did not confirm that the woman being tested is a KLM stewardess, and neither did the airline.
But Dutch authorities said that crew and passengers who helped the Dutch woman who passed away are being called daily for health checks.
