As news about a deadly hantavirus outbreak on board Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius spreads, so, it seems does the virus, with information emerging that a flight attendant who came into contact with one of the ship’s infected passengers has now been hospitalised.
The KLM crew member, who remains as yet unidentified in press reports, was placed into an isolation unit in an Amsterdam hospital on the evening of Wednesday, 6 May. She had been collected from her home after suffering symptoms described as mild and was due to undergo testing.
The attendant’s contact with the MV Hondius passenger was brief, according to reports that say the infected person was a 69-year-old woman whose husband had died on board the cruise liner two weeks earlier.
“Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe disease in humans.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 7, 2026
People are usually infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.
The species of hantavirus involved in this case is the Andes virus – which is…
The bereaved and poorly voyager had been taken from the ship to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she was put aboard a KLM plane to fly to the Dutch capital for treatment, but was judged to be too sick and removed from the flight. She passed away the following day.
A statement issued by the Dutch airline said: “Due to the passenger’s medical condition at the time, the crew decided not to allow the passenger to travel on the flight.” Contact tracing is now taking place among the other passengers and crew on the KLM flight.
Three people from the stricken cruise, including the aforementioned Dutch couple from Haarlem and a German man, have died after contracting the virus. Three others, among them a former British policeman identified as Martin Anstee, were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday in protective hazmat suits. At the time of writing, five cases associated with the cruise have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation. Another of the suspected cases arrived at Schiphol Airport aboard a different flight that came in from Gran Canaria, Dutch News has reported.
So far, eight cases of #hantavirus have been reported, including three deaths.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 7, 2026
While this is a serious incident, @WHO assesses the public health risk as low.
WHO will continue to work with all relevant governments and partners to provide care for those who are affected, protect… pic.twitter.com/NEBHXrqurT
Health authorities are working to ascertain whether the hantavirus outbreak in question, thought to be the Andean strain, which is normally spread through rodents and is not transmissible from human-to-human unless through very close contact, is in fact a mutation. The virus is usually transmitted to humans through the inhalation of rodent droppings. One theory about how the Dutch couple might have been infected recounts that they may have undertaken a birdwatching trip that involved a visit to a landfill during an excursion in Ushuaia before boarding the cruise ship Hondius in Argentina.
