Netherlands medical authorities give all-clear for vessel previously contaminated with hantavirus to set sail once more

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An ambulance boat position itself on the pilot door on the starboard side of the cruise ship MV Hondius, while 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)

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A cruise ship which sparked a global health alert over a deadly outbreak of hantavirus was on Saturday cleared to put to sea again after cleaning and disinfection.

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“From a public health perspective, there are no longer any obstacles to putting the Hondius back to sea,” the public health agency in the Dutch port of Rotterdam said following a final inspection on Friday.

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During the checks, infection control experts “determined that the Hondius had been cleaned effectively and that disinfection had been carried out in accordance with established guidelines,” a statement said.

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The owner of the MV Hondius, Oceanwide Expeditions, this week said that the Hondius would leave Rotterdam once inspections were complete, and that it would resume its cruise schedule from June 13.

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The Hondius was sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde when its journey was disrupted after three passengers died following the hantavirus outbreak. Some passengers had left the ship at the island of St Helena before the alert was raised.

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Hantavirus is a rare virus spread by rodents for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.

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Most passengers were taken off the ship on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, then flown back to their home countries.

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The Dutch-flagged ship arrived on May 18 in Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, where the remainder of its crew was placed in quarantine.

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The World Health Organization has to date recorded 13 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak, including the three people who died.

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