South Africa has been drawn into a multi-country public health response after a cluster of illnesses and three deaths linked to an international cruise ship, with one passenger dying locally and another in critical condition in a Sandton hospital, the department of health confirmed.
In a statement issued on Monday, the department said it had been informed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of cases emerging from the MV Hondius, a vessel carrying about 150 tourists travelling from southern Argentina to the Canary Islands.
The outbreak was initially treated as a severe acute respiratory infection as passengers fell ill over several weeks while the ship travelled through remote Atlantic routes.
The first patient, a 70-year-old Dutch national, became ill onboard and died on arrival at St Helena Island. His symptoms included fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
His spouse, a 69-year-old woman, later collapsed at OR Tambo International Airport while in transit and died at a health facility in Kempton Park. Laboratory results in her case are outstanding.
A third patient, a British national, deteriorated while the ship was travelling between St Helena and Ascension Island and was medically evacuated to South Africa.
He is in a private hospital in Sandton, where tests have confirmed hantavirus, a rare but potentially fatal infection typically transmitted through contact with rodent excreta.
He remains in critical condition in isolation.
The department said that while only two of the affected passengers had entered South Africa, authorities were conducting contact tracing in Gauteng to identify and monitor individuals who might have been exposed. It added that there was no immediate cause for public alarm.
The confirmation of hantavirus in a patient treated in Johannesburg complicates what was
initially understood as a respiratory outbreak.
Unlike common cruise ship outbreaks, which are typically driven by person to person transmission, hantavirus is generally linked to environmental exposure.
The incident places South Africa within a broader response being coordinated by the World Health Organisation, involving multiple jurisdictions connected to the ship’s route.
For now, health authorities appear to be treating the cases as contained. There is no indication of local transmission but the presence of a confirmed casein South Africa’s health system and a death linked to transit through the country will probably keep the situation under close scrutiny.
Health officials are monitoring possible exposures in Gauteng after passengers linked to a deadly cruise ship outbreak passed through South Africa, with one patient in critical condition in Sandton
