Three passengers dead after suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

Dutch husband and wife and third unidentified person reported to have died, with three further people taken ill What is hantavirus, the infection thought to have killed three on cruise ship? A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people – including an elderly married couple – and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and South Africa’s health department said on Sunday. The WHO said an investigation was under way but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the UN’s health agency said in a statement to the Associated Press, and the WHO was working with authorities to evacuate two others with symptoms from the ship. The outbreak was reported on the MV Hondius, which was travelling between Argentina and Cape Verde. According to several online ship-tracking sites, the MV Hondius was just off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on Sunday night. Two of those who died were a husband and wife aged 70 and 69 from the Netherlands. The South African health ministry said the man fell ill onboard the shi