29 Passengers Left the Ship Before Hantavirus Was Confirmed, Now 12 Nations Are Hunting Them Down

By the time anyone knew the MV Hondius was carrying a hantavirus outbreak, dozens of passengers had already gone home. They had flown through airports, boarded connecting flights, and returned to everyday life across at least 12 countries, completely unaware they may have been exposed to a deadly virus.

Sources confirmed that 30 passengers disembarked at the remote island of Saint Helena on April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died and more than a week before hantavirus was officially confirmed in any case linked to the ship.

It wasn't until May 2 that laboratories in South Africa confirmed hantavirus in the first passenger, a British man who had been medically evacuated from the ship. He remains in intensive care. By that point, people who had been sitting in the same shared spaces as confirmed cases were already scattered across multiple continents. 

In Canada, three people are now self-isolating, including one individual who was never on the cruise at all but shared a return flight with two passengers who were. In France, eight nationals who were on the same April 25 flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg as a confirmed case have been identified as close contacts, with one displaying mild symptoms. 

Singapore confirmed it is isolating and monitoring two male residents in their 60s who disembarked at Saint Helena, flew to South Africa, and then returned home. In Switzerland, a passenger who disembarked at Saint Helena later tested positive and is being treated in Zurich.

Perhaps the most alarming development came from the Netherlands, where health authorities revealed that a KLM flight attendant, who briefly came into contact with an infected passenger on a flight in Johannesburg, was showing symptoms of hantavirus and was admitted to an Amsterdam hospital for isolation and testing. If confirmed, she would be the first known person to be infected outside the ship's passenger and crew group.

The U.S. CDC confirmed the risk to the general American public is extremely low. At the same time, the State Department said it is in direct contact with the 17 Americans still aboard the vessel and coordinating with international health partners.