MV Hondius reaches Canary Islands: what happens next

On 6 May 2026, the Spanish authorities granted the MV Hondius permission to dock in the Canary Islands, ending a four-day stand-off off the coast of Cape Verde. The Dutch-flagged expedition vessel had been carrying 88 passengers and 59 crew members across the South Atlantic since 1 April when an outbreak of acute respiratory syndrome — now suspected to be hantavirus — killed three people aboard.

Below: the verified outbreak figures as of 6 May, sourced from WHO situation reports and the cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

What docking will involve

Public-health authorities at the destination port follow a standard protocol for ship-borne outbreaks:

• Medical reception. Symptomatic passengers and crew are evaluated on arrival. Those still acutely ill — including, reportedly, two crew members in critical condition — are transferred to onshore hospitals.
• Contact tracing. Investigators retrace each person’s movements before, during and after the voyage. The list of contacts can extend well beyond the ship: a French national has already been identified as a contact case after sharing a flight to Johannesburg with one of the patients evacuated in late April.
• Disinfection. The vessel itself is searched and disinfected. With rodent-borne pathogens, particular attention is paid to food storage, crew quarters, and any cabins where dust or droppings could harbour viable virus.
• Repatriation. Once cleared, passengers can be repatriated under their respective governments’ protocols. France, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom have all activated their consular and public-health agencies in coordination with WHO.

The strain question

WHO has so far documented eight cases — three lab-confirmed — alongside the three deaths. The Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to spread from person to person, was confirmed in a Swiss passenger after he disembarked and returned home. Further sequencing on samples taken aboard on 4 May by specialists from the Institut Pasteur de Dakar is expected to confirm whether the same strain is circulating in the cluster.

WHO continues to assess the risk to the general public as low, while emphasising that contact tracing must be exhaustive given the unusually wide geographic dispersion of the passengers — 23 nationalities are represented aboard.

Outbreak timeline

What to watch next

1. Sequencing results from Dakar — confirmation that the cluster is driven by Andes virus would have direct implications for transmission modelling and contact-tracing scope.
2. The British passenger’s outcome — still in intensive care in Johannesburg as of 5 May; his recovery or death will affect the overall case fatality rate.
3. The fate of the contact-tracing in France — the Direction générale de la santé, Santé publique France and the Centre national de référence des hantavirus are now part of the response. Any secondary case in Europe would be a significant signal.
4. Industry response — Oceanwide Expeditions and other expedition cruise operators may face renewed scrutiny over rodent-control protocols on long-itinerary vessels.

The MV Hondius outbreak is the first documented hantavirus cluster aboard a cruise ship. Whether it stays a one-off depends on what investigators find in the coming days at the Canary Islands quayside.