The World Health Organization on Thursday (July 2, 2026) declared an end to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship which sparked international alarm, after the last person left quarantine.

There were 12 confirmed and one probable case stemming from the MV Hondius, including three deaths.

But while the outbreak is now over, for scientists and experts, the work is only in its early stages, as they try to learn lessons from the episode that triggered a global health alert.

“Today, the final contact of a person exposed to hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius completed their quarantine period, tested negative and returned home,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

“No further cases have been reported since May 25. We are therefore very pleased to say that WHO considers the outbreak of hantavirus over.”

The Dutch-flagged ship set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, including Tristan da Cunha, before heading north to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were evacuated.

The polar exploration ship finally docked on May 18 in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands.

On May 30, the ship was cleared to put to sea again after cleaning and disinfection.

Quest for future vaccines

Mr. Tedros said more than 650 contacts were identified and followed up by health authorities in 33 countries and territories.

He said the WHO would continue working to understand the outbreak, and the virus itself.

“We are also coordinating a study involving 21 countries to understand how the disease develops, which will support the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for future outbreaks,” Mr. Tedros said.

Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.

The Andes species behind the Hondius outbreak is the only strain of hantavirus known to be able to jump from human to human.

It had been thought that a passenger on the ship caught the virus while travelling in regions of Argentina where it is endemic.

However the country’s health ministry announced in June that an investigation in a second Argentine province had failed to find any virus-carrying rodents.

Diana Rojas Alvarez, the WHO’s high impact epidemics chief said the Hondius outbreak could be declared over as it was no longer a public health risk.

“However, Andes virus and other hantaviruses are still a public health threat for South America and some other endemic areas,” she said.

Experts need to keep monitoring such viruses and preparing for further spread, and involve local communities in preparedness and prevention.

“The work on hantaviruses needs to continue over time,” she said.

The WHO hoped the episode might spur its member states into finally completing the missing part of the Pandemic Agreement later this month, so it may finally become operational.

A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is scheduled to arrive in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Monday morning (May 18, 2026).

The MV Hondius has spent the past six days sailing from the Canary Islands, where the remaining passengers were escorted off the vessel by personnel in full-body protective gear and boarded flights to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine.

The outbreak on the ship has reached 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed, according to the World Health Organisation. Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The vessel has made the journey from Tenerife up the coast of Africa and Europe with 25 crew members and two medical personnel. According to the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions, no one on board is experiencing any symptoms.

Crew members who are unable to return home will be quarantined in the Netherlands, the Dutch Health Ministry said last week. Some two dozen passengers and crew are already in quarantine in the Netherlands, after arriving in the country on a series of flights over the previous two weeks.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said Sunday (May 17, 2026) that one of the four Canadians in isolation after leaving the ship had tested positive. The case was not yet reflected in the WHO data.

Eighteen Americans are currently under observation at specialised healthcare facilities in the United States designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, the public health officer for the province of British Columbia, said Saturday (May 16, 2026) the person had received a “presumptive positive” but further testing would be conducted at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

After everyone on board has disembarked, the ship will be decontaminated based on Dutch public health guidelines. “Personal protective measures are being taken to ensure that the cleaners do not need to quarantine after the cleaning,” the Health Ministry said in a letter to the Dutch parliament last week.

Public health officials will inspect the vessel before it is allowed to sail again. The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius is the first known case on a cruise ship.

The Dutch company that owns the cruise ship said it doesn’t foresee any changes to its operations. It has an Arctic cruise setting sail from Keflavik, Iceland, on May 29.

France’s Pasteur Institute said on Saturday (May 16, 2026) it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous.

Three people have died on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, the WHO said Sunday (May 3, 2026), one a confirmed case of hantavirus — an illness usually transmitted to humans from rodents.

The outbreak occurred on the MV Hondius, travelling from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde.