Two Britons who were medically evacuated from a hantavirus-hit cruise ship are improving, global health officials have said.
A British passenger, understood to be a 69-year-old man, was taken to South Africa on April 27 and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Another Briton, Martin Anstee, 56, was taken off the MV Hondius on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive specialist medical care.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, from the World Health Organisation (WHO), said two patients – known to include a Briton – remain in hospital in the Netherlands, and another Briton is in intensive care in South Africa.
She told a WHO press briefing: “I am very happy to say the patient in South Africa is doing better, and the two patients in the Netherlands we hear are stable. So that is actually very good news.”
The WHO said morale has improved on board since the ship started its journey to Tenerife.
It said two doctors are on board along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who are conducting a medical assessment of everyone on board.
While the risk to the public is low, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said there could be more cases due to the incubation period of the Andes virus – the variant of hantavirus linked to the outbreak.
“Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he said.
“While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low.”
He added: “I would also like to thank the ship’s operator for its co-operation, and the passengers and crew who are going through a very difficult and frightening situation.
Three suspected #hantavirus case patients have just been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in coordination with @WHO, the ship’s operator and national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.… pic.twitter.com/olQBk6tdGk
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 6, 2026
“I’ve been in touch with the ship’s captain regularly, including this morning. He told me morale has improved significantly since the ship started moving again.”
The WHO is not expecting the outbreak to be an epidemic, according to Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, director at the alert and response co-ordination department.
He highlighted a similar outbreak in Argentina in 2018/19 which led to 34 cases.
“If we follow public health measures, and the lessons we learned from Argentina are shared across all countries… we can break this chain of transmission and this doesn’t need to be a large epidemic,” Dr Mahamud said.
“We don’t anticipate a large epidemic. With experience our member states have, and the actions they have taken, we believe that this will not lead to subsequent chain of transmission.”
It emerged earlier that seven British people disembarked from the ship mid-way through the cruise, along with a woman who later died.
A total of 29 people left the ship when it docked in the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.
The woman was accompanying her husband’s body, which was being repatriated after he died on the ship on April 11.
Tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement: “On 1 April 2026, 114 guests boarded MV Hondius in Ushuaia, Argentina.
“Thirty guests disembarked MV Hondius on Saint Helena on 24 April 2026.
“This number includes the body of the guest who passed away on board MV Hondius on 11 April 2026.”
The 30 people who disembarked were from 12 nations, including the seven Britons.
Oceanwide Expeditions said guests who disembarked have been contacted.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been asked whether it can confirm it has been in touch with all seven Britons who left the ship on April 24.
We are working closely with international partners to respond to the outbreak of hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The latest information is in our news story: https://t.co/9xJMS8e1pU (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Z9NwgPlIcZ
— UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) May 6, 2026
On Wednesday, the ECDC said everyone on board should be considered a “close contact”.
It comes after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that two Britons who had already returned from the vessel are isolating at home.
These passengers flew back to the UK via Johannesburg after getting off in St Helena.
Some 19 British nationals were listed as passengers on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members.
UK health experts said British passengers on board will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days.
Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, said “for the broader public, not directly involved in this cruise ship, the risk here is really negligible”.
The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight so the remaining Britons on board the ship who are not displaying symptoms can be repatriated once they dock in Tenerife in the next few days.
According to the UKHSA, none of the British citizens on board is reporting symptoms, but they are being closely monitored.
Prof May said the “most extreme case of incubation” of hantavirus “may be up to eight weeks” but general consensus is people need to isolate for “probably six weeks, and so that’s the period of isolation, 45 days, that we’re likely to be recommending”.
Asked about the two British passengers who have returned to the UK, Prof May added that contact tracing is happening for anyone who may have sat next to them on the flight home.
The two contacted health officials when they heard about the cases on the ship and are voluntarily self-isolating in the UK. They do not have symptoms.
The outbreak, which has been linked to three deaths, has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.
Despite concerns from locals and officials, Spanish authorities have given permission for the ship to dock in the Canary Islands.
The boat left the shores of Cape Verde at 6.15pm UK time on Wednesday, Oceanwide Expeditions said, and is estimated to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday, subject to change.
Three people were taken off the ship on Wednesday to the Netherlands for treatment, including Mr Anstee.
Speaking from hospital, he told Sky News: “I’m doing OK. I’m not feeling too bad. There are still lots of tests to be done.
“I have no idea how long I’ll be in the hospital for. I’m in isolation at the moment.”
His wife Nicola told the Telegraph it had been “a very traumatic few days”.
The WHO said it is working with all the countries who have passengers and crew on board the MV Hondius to get them home.
Dr Van Kerkhove said: “It needs to be very carefully done, but we are working with the countries about that onward passage home.”
The Associated Press reported the Argentine government’s hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a birdwatching outing in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
Two Argentine officials told the news agency that the couple visited a landfill during the birdwatching tour where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.
Argentine investigators tasked with analysing rodents at the landfill site to see if they carry the Andes strain of the hantavirus, that has been identified in the outbreak on the cruise ship, are yet to leave for Ushuaia, but plan to travel there “in the coming days”, AP reported.
Passengers were confined to their cabins while “disinfection and other public health measures are carried out”, the WHO said on Tuesday.
