Two British passengers are self-isolating at home in the UK after possible exposure to hantavirus aboard the expedition ship MV Hondius, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.
They disembarked at St Helena in late April and flew back to the UK via Johannesburg. Neither has symptoms but they contacted health officials after learning of cases on the ship.
A 56-year-old British man was evacuated from the vessel on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands for treatment; media reports have named him as former police officer Martin Anstee. He is reported to be in a stable condition. Three people have died in the outbreak on the ship, which sailed from Argentina about a month ago. Other evacuees included a Dutch passenger and a German passenger; the German was described as closely associated with a woman who died on board on 2 May.
Hantaviruses most often spread from rodents, but health experts say the Andes strain—confirmed in two passengers—has on rare occasions spread between humans after close contact. The incubation period can be between one and eight weeks, with experts now “consolidating around six weeks” as a likely upper range, UKHSA chief scientific officer Prof Robin May told BBC radio.
UKHSA has assessed the risk to the UK population as “very low” and said there is no need for concern among the general public. Oceanwide Expeditions listed 19 passengers and four crew as British. The operator said the ship will sail to the Canary Islands, where Spanish authorities have allowed it to dock at Granadilla port in Tenerife; Spanish passengers will be quarantined in Madrid, and other nationals without symptoms will be repatriated.
The US Department of State said it is in direct contact with affected passengers and, via the CDC, described the risk to the American public as “extremely low.” The World Health Organization (WHO) said eight people, including a Swiss national, are suspected to have contracted the virus. The three people who were identified with symptoms (the British man, a 41-year-old Dutch crew member and a 65-year-old German) were evacuated to the Netherlands for care, the WHO said.
UKHSA plans to fly Britons home on a charter flight—likely from the Canary Islands—provided they are asymptomatic. Returned passengers would be asked to self-isolate or be quarantined for up to six weeks depending on when their last exposure occurred. Officials will carry out contact tracing for family members, cabin-mates and anyone who sat near them on long-haul flights; May described the tracing as a “mammoth effort” that will continue for some time.
It remains unclear where the outbreak began or whether anyone outside the cruise has been infected. A passenger who left earlier in the voyage said ship staff initially assumed an illness was not infectious; a video posted from 12 April shows the captain saying a deceased passenger died of “natural causes” and was “not infectious.” Oceanwide said the first hantavirus report came after disembarkation at St Helena and that it acted according to its public updates from 4 May.
The Foreign Office said it was urgently working to get British nationals home, with consular staff in contact and the UK response led by UKHSA in coordination with WHO. UKHSA is also working with St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension Island authorities on isolation, contact tracing and response protocols.
