WHO Rules Out Pandemic Threat From Hantavirus. Here The List of The Countries

• By Thetripurapost Desk, Geneva
• May 08, 2026
• 573

Fresh fears over a possible international health scare have emerged after an outbreak of Hantavirus aboard a cruise ship claimed three lives during a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

The incident has triggered concern worldwide because certain strains of hantavirus can, in rare situations, spread between humans, although the disease is primarily transmitted through infected rodents.

The outbreak occurred aboard the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise vessel MV Hondius, which was carrying around 150 passengers from several countries.

Amid growing global concern years after the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization addressed the situation during a media briefing on Thursday and emphasized that the risk to the broader public remains low because human-to-human transmission of the virus is uncommon.

The first confirmed infection linked to the outbreak was identified on May 2 after a passenger who had already left the ship tested positive for the virus. The detection came after three passengers had died within a span of weeks during the voyage.

The first reported victim was a 70-year-old Dutch passenger who died on April 6, just five days after the ship departed from Ushuaia in southern Argentina.

The cruise route included stops in Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

According to WHO, the Dutch passenger developed symptoms including fever, headache and mild diarrhoea while onboard the vessel.

Before boarding the cruise, the passenger and his wife had reportedly travelled through different parts of Argentina and Chile.

The man’s wife, also a Dutch national, later collapsed at an airport in South Africa while preparing to board a return flight home and died on April 26.

The body of the first victim was removed from the ship on April 24 at Saint Helena, where 29 other passengers, including his wife, disembarked from the cruise.

The third fatality linked to the outbreak involved a German woman who died onboard nearly one month after the first passenger became ill.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed reporters in Geneva that authorities have so far identified five confirmed cases and three suspected infections connected to the outbreak, including the three deaths.

Tedros warned that additional cases could still emerge because the incubation period of the Andes strain of hantavirus may last up to six weeks.

Countries directly linked to the outbreak

The countries directly associated with the outbreak include:

• Argentina — where passengers boarded the cruise ship.
• Saint Helena — where passengers disembarked and contact monitoring is underway.
• South Africa — where infected passengers received medical treatment.
• Cape Verde — listed as part of the cruise itinerary.
• Netherlands — home country of the cruise operator and two deceased passengers.
• United Kingdom — because Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory and one British national tested positive.

WHO has also alerted several countries whose citizens disembarked at Saint Helena, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

Despite rising anxiety internationally, the WHO has clarified that the outbreak should not be viewed as the beginning of another pandemic.

Authorities in Argentina stated on Thursday that investigators have not yet been able to determine the exact origin of the outbreak.

Following consultations involving officials from all 24 provinces, Argentina’s Health Ministry said the currently available information is insufficient to establish where the infections first emerged.

Although the three deaths have caused widespread concern, health experts have stressed that hantavirus is far less contagious than Covid-19 and does not spread easily between people under normal circumstances.