A French passenger who was not on board the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship is being monitored by health officials after reportedly developing signs of the disease following a flight with an infected passenger, as fears grow over hantavirus transmission beyond the ship.
A man who was not aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship - but shared a flight with an infected passenger - is reported to have contracted the deadly illness, as health officials keep a close watch on his condition.
The unnamed passenger, from France, is being monitored as a close contact case after reportedly displaying symptoms of the rat-borne disease. He had boarded the same flight as an infected Dutch passenger who disembarked from the MV Hondius after experiencing gastric symptoms, unaware at the time that she was carrying the virus.
South African carrier Airlink confirmed the flight from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg was carrying 82 passengers and six crew members, with World Health Organisation officials working to trace all those on board. Three people - a 70-year-old Dutch man, his 69-year-old wife, and a German woman - have so far lost their lives following the outbreak linked to the cruise vessel.
British former police officer Martin Anstee, 56, along with two other cruise passengers, has travelled to the Netherlands to receive specialist treatment, while another patient is currently being treated in Zurich, Switzerland. The Swiss Health Ministry stated that the University Hospital Zurich was 'prepared to deal with such cases' and maintained there is 'currently no risk to the Swiss public'.
Meanwhile, health officials in Argentina – where the MV Hondius departed from a month ago – are investigating whether the country is the source of the outbreak. The nation's health ministry announced yesterday that it will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in Ushuaia, its port of departure. Argentina is consistently ranked by the World Health Organisation as having the highest rates of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.
The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the figures recorded over the same period the previous year, reports the Mirror . A hantavirus found in South America, known as the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung condition called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
The disease proved fatal in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina's Health Ministry said, up from an average rate of 15 in the five years before that. Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist, said: 'Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate.
There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.
' Hantavirus is typically contracted through inhaling contaminated rodent droppings. Although human-to-human transmission is possible, the WHO considers this uncommon, with its leading epidemic expert stating that the risk to the general public remains low. The Andes strain - confirmed in positive test samples aboard the MV Hondius - is the only known variant of hantavirus capable of spreading between people. The virus has an incubation period of between one and eight weeks.
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