An aerial view of the cruise ship MV Hondius stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 5, 2026. Two seriously ill crew members on a cruise ship stricken by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will be evacuated via Cape Verde to the Netherlands, allowing the vessel to sail on to Spain's Canary Islands, the ship operator said Tuesday. The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday, when WHO was informed that the rare disease -- usually spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva -- was suspected of being behind the deaths of three of its passengers. As others fell ill, passengers and crew have been in isolation after Cape Verde authorities barred the ship from docking, and as health authorities scrambled to find a port that would take the Hondius. (Photo by AFP)

The cruise ship MV Hondius stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde.
Photo: AFP

South Africa has identified the Andes strain of hantavirus, which spreads human-to-human, in two people who came off a cruise ship hit by an outbreak of the disease, the health minister’s presentation to parliament showed on Wednesday.

The ship, the MV Hondius, was preparing to travel from Cape Verde towards Europe on Wednesday after the Spanish government gave permission for it to dock in the Canary Islands.

The presentation seen by Reuters said tests done by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) revealed that the Andes strain was the cause of infection in a Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg, and a British man who is still in hospital. Both had become ill on the ship.

“This is the only strain that is known to cause human to human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and as said earlier, only happens due to very close contact,” it said.

Other strains of hantavirus are more commonly transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.

-Reuters