Updated May 10, 2026 — The first passengers began disembarking Sunday from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius after the vessel arrived in Granadilla, Tenerife, following a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
Health officials said that, at the time of disembarkation, no one remaining on board was showing symptoms. The outbreak has been linked to at least nine confirmed or suspected cases, including three fatalities: a Dutch couple and a German woman. The Hondius was carrying nearly 150 people from more than 15 countries, including 17 Americans, and about 60 crew members.
Operator Oceanwide Expeditions said passengers and some crew would leave the ship by small launch boats that hold five to 10 people. Spanish passengers were to disembark first. Flights were organized by nationality in sequence — a Netherlands-bound flight that will include Germans, Belgians, Greeks and part of the crew, followed by departures to Canada, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Ireland and the United States as aircraft became available. A final flight to Australia, operated by that country, was scheduled for Monday and will include some travelers from New Zealand and Asia.
Officials said there would not be routine health screenings on land; passengers would be moved quickly by bus to planes and flown out of Tenerife. After passengers leave, a skeleton crew will resupply the Hondius and sail it to Rotterdam, a journey Oceanwide expects to take about five days.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was sending epidemiologists and medical staff to the Canary Islands to assess exposure risk for U.S. passengers and recommend monitoring levels. Americans removed from the ship will be flown home on a medical repatriation flight coordinated by the CDC and HHS, landing at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. They will be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s special biocontainment unit; the hospital’s quarantine unit director said each American will have an individual room while they quarantine for an unspecified period.
The evacuation is being coordinated by the World Health Organization and multiple health agencies; WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus traveled to Tenerife ahead of the ship’s arrival.
Hantaviruses are typically spread to people from infected rodents via urine, droppings or saliva, and symptoms can take up to eight weeks to appear. WHO notes that the Andes strain, found in parts of Latin America, is the only hantavirus known to transmit between people. Tedros and acting CDC director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya described the public risk as low; Bhattacharya added that hantavirus is not spread by people without symptoms and that transmission requires close contact.
Investigations into the source remain ongoing. WHO officials said the Dutch couple who died had spent weeks touring Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip in areas where the rodent species that carry the Andes virus are present. The man developed symptoms on April 6 and died aboard the ship on April 11; no samples were taken at the time because his illness resembled other respiratory viruses. His wife went ashore in St. Helena and later became seriously ill on a flight to Johannesburg on April 25, dying the following day; testing confirmed hantavirus infection. A German woman developed symptoms on April 28 and died aboard the Hondius on May 2.
Several other patients required evacuation or local care: three people were flown to the Netherlands for emergency treatment; a Swiss man who fell ill after disembarking received care in Zurich; one British passenger was evacuated to South Africa, and another British national who earlier disembarked was hospitalized on Tristan da Cunha. Oceanwide said 32 passengers from about a dozen countries left the ship in St. Helena, including the Dutch woman who later died. American passengers who had returned to the U.S. before the outbreak was recognized were being monitored by state health departments in California, Georgia, Texas, Virginia and Arizona.
The Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and visited islands in the South Atlantic — including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island — before calling at St. Helena from April 21–24. The ship later anchored off Cape Verde for several days before proceeding to the Canary Islands.
Authorities continue contact tracing, testing and clinical monitoring as the coordinated evacuation proceeds.