{"id":657375,"date":"2026-05-08T09:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657375\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:05:09","slug":"third-british-national-has-suspected-hantavirus-infection-government-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657375\/","title":{"rendered":"Third British national has suspected hantavirus infection, government says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A third British national has suspected hantavirus in connection with an outbreak on board the cruise ship MV Hondius, the government has said.<\/p>\n

The patient is currently on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where the ship stopped in mid-April.<\/p>\n

Two other British men have confirmed cases – one remains in a stable condition in the Netherlands after being evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, while the other remains in intensive care after being flown to South Africa last month.<\/p>\n

Five cases of hantavirus have been confirmed,<\/a> including one of the three passengers on the cruise who died.<\/p>\n

The MV Hondius is expected to dock in the Canary Islands at the weekend, where the government has confirmed it will be met by a chartered plane to fly the remaining British passengers and crew on the cruise ship back to the UK.<\/p>\n

Although none of the remaining Britons are currently displaying symptoms, they will be asked to isolate upon their return home.<\/p>\n

British national Martin Anstee, a 56-year-old retired police officer and an expedition guide on board the MV Hondius, was evacuated to the Netherlands on Wednesday alongside a 41-year-old Dutch crew member and a 65-year-old German<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He remains in a stable condition and told the BBC that he was “fine”.<\/p>\n

Another British passenger, 69, has a confirmed case and was medically evacuated to South Africa at the end of April.<\/p>\n

He remains in intensive care and has been said by officials to be “doing better”.<\/p>\n

Two other British nationals are already self-isolating at home in the UK after potential exposure. They are doing so voluntarily and do not have any symptoms.<\/p>\n

They were part of a group of 30 people from a dozen nations – including seven Britons – who disembarked from the ship at St Helena in the south Atlantic on 24 April, according to operator Oceanwide Expeditions.<\/p>\n

The operator said the first confirmed case of hantavirus was not reported until 4 May and that all guests who disembarked the ship had been contacted.<\/p>\n

Four Britons who disembarked on St Helena remain there.<\/p>\n

They do not have symptoms but are in contact with health officials. It is understood that medical staff will be sent to the islands to provide support.<\/p>\n

A UK health official has said that British passengers who were on MV Hondius will likely be asked to self-isolate for 45 days on returning to the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contact tracing is under way in several other countries for dozens of passengers who left the Dutch cruise ship before the outbreak was detected – including Switzerland and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) called it a “serious incident” but said the risk to the public was low, stressing the outbreak was not similar to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

British people affected by hantavirus outbreak<\/p>\n

Three Britons are confirmed or suspected to have contracted hantavirus<\/p>\n

One of them is being treated in the Netherlands, another man is being treated in South Africa, and a third is on the remote Atlantic island of Trista da Cunha<\/p>\n

Seven Britons disembarked the MV Hondius in St Helena on 24 April before the first confirmed case of hantavirus was reported on 4 May, with four remaining there<\/p>\n

Two of the Britons who disembarked on 24 April have already returned to the UK and are self-isolating voluntarily but do not have symptoms<\/p>\n

The seventh person has not yet been traced, the UKHSA has said<\/p>\n

The origin of the outbreak is still unknown and it is not known if people other than cruise ship passengers and crew have been infected with the disease.<\/p>\n

WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus told a news conference that the first two cases had “travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip which included visits to sites where the species of rat known to carry the virus was present”.<\/p>\n

One of the three deaths was a Dutch woman, 69, who left the MV Hondius when it stopped at St Helena on 24 April and travelled to South Africa where she died two days later.<\/p>\n

Her husband died on board the vessel on 11 April, while a German woman also died on board. Neither are confirmed to have had the virus.<\/p>\n

Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents such as mice and rats, but experts believe that in this circumstance it may have passed between humans who were in close contact.<\/p>\n

Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, stomach pain, vomiting and shortness of breath, usually appearing between two to four weeks after being exposed to the virus.<\/p>\n

The UKHSA said the virus was not spread through everyday contact such as walking in public spaces and that in the rare instances where a person has caught it from another person, they have had “close and prolonged” contact.<\/p>\n

Are you on the ship or do you know someone who is? If you feel able to do so, please get in touch by using this link<\/a> or the form below.<\/p>\n

\"Your<\/p>\n

[BBC]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A third British national has suspected hantavirus in connection with an outbreak on board the cruise ship MV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[317860,64,63,204156,227524,1164,314457,137,315583,1183,46660],"class_list":["post-657375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-atlantic-island","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-british-national","tag-confirmed-case","tag-cruise-ship","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-hondius","tag-south-africa","tag-st-helena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}