Hantavirus strain that spreads between humans found in cruise ship passengers

A rare strain of hantavirus, which has been known to spread between people in close contact, has been found in patients linked to a deadly outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship. The health ministry in South Africa said the Andes strain of the virus was identified in two people who had been evacuated from the ship to the country. Three passengers on the MV Hondius have died, after it set sail from Argentina on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean around a month ago. Another three people with symptoms were evacuated from the ship to receive medical care in the Netherlands on Wednesday morning, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced. "At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low," the WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated," he added. The evacuees were a 56-year-old Briton, a 41-year-old Dutch national and a 65-year-old German, the Netherlands' foreign ministry said. Earlier, the cruise ship's operator Oceanwide Expeditions said two of the three people due to be evacuated were crew members, including the ship's reportedly British doctor. The third was a p