By MOLLY QUELL, SUMAN NAISHADHAM, ISABEL DEBRE and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press
Oceanwide Expeditions has revealed that 30 passengers disembarked from its cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak on April 24. They left the ship on the remote island of St. Helena, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died. The company had previously said that a Dutch man's body was removed there, and that his wife also disembarked. She later died in South Africa. Authorities across four continents are tracing contacts of passengers who left the ship. Three passengers have died in the outbreak, and several others are sick. Argentina's Health Ministry tells The Associated Press that a team of investigators has yet to leave for the southern town they suspect is where a Dutch couple contracted the virus.
A cruise ship with nearly 150 people is waiting for help off Cape Verde's coast in the Atlantic Ocean after three passengers died and three others were left seriously ill in a suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus. The World Health Organization and the ship's operator reported the deaths and illnesses. The MV Hondius was on a polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and several South Atlantic islands. A 70-year-old Dutch man was the first victim. His wife also died, after leaving the ship. The ship operator says the body of a third passenger who died is onboard. A British man tested positive and is critically ill in a South African hospital. A health official said the woman who died also tested positive, posthumously. Cape Verde said Monday it wasn't allowing the ship to dock.