Argentina seeks source of cruise ship hantavirus outbreak as infected passengers head back to US

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine whether the country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has struck an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that several passengers have already returned home.

Argentina, the departure point for the cruise to Antarctica, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent‑borne disease in Latin America. Investigators are working to trace the source of contamination.

The Argentine health ministry reported on Tuesday that 101 hantavirus infections had been recorded since June 2025, roughly double the number from the previous year.

The Andes virus, a hantavirus found in South America, can cause a severe and often fatal lung condition known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease proved fatal in nearly a third of cases last year, according to the ministry.

Authorities confirmed that passengers aboard the MV Hondius tested positive for the Andes virus. Three passengers have died, one is in intensive care in a South African hospital, and three others were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday. Another man who left the vessel earlier in the voyage tested positive in Switzerland.

On Wednesday, Argentina said it would send genetic material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to aid detection.

People usually become infected with hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva; human‑to‑human transmission is rare, although limited spread among close contacts has been observed in previous outbreaks involving the Andes strain.

Concern has also arisen about 23 passengers who reportedly disembarked the MV Hondius on the island of Saint Helena on 23 April, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El País. “There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” a passenger who asked to remain anonymous reportedly told the paper in a phone interview.

The cohort subsequently returned to their respective countries, including the United States. American passengers were being monitored in Georgia, California and Arizona, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, although none had shown signs of illness.

The WHO says the first death on board the cruise ship—a 70‑year‑old Dutch man—occurred on 11 April. His body was removed from the vessel nearly two weeks later at Saint Helena. His 69‑year‑old wife flew from Saint Helena to South Africa, collapsed at Johannesburg airport and died in a hospital on 26 April.

The third fatality, a German woman, died on 2 May.

Argentine officials say they are trying to pinpoint where infected passengers travelled in the country before boarding the Dutch‑flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the “end of the world.” Once the itineraries are known, they plan to trace contacts and isolate those at risk.