Argentina investigates link to deadly hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

Health authorities of the South American nation of Argentina are working to determine whether their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has claimed several lives on board an Atlantic cruise ship.

The Argentinian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that it would send experts to the far south area of Ushuaia to capture and test rodents, which typically transmit the disease, “in areas linked to the route” taken by a Dutch couple who died from the virus.

A total of three people, the Dutch couple and a German national, have died from the outbreak. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that a total of eight people are suspected of having contracted the virus.

“As of 6 May, there are 8 cases, 3 of whom are confirmed as hantavirus by laboratory testing,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.

“WHO will continue to work with countries to ensure that the patients, contacts, passengers and crew have the information and support they need to stay safe and prevent spread.”

The cruise ship, stuck off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday, departed for Spain on Wednesday after three people had been evacuated, two of them seriously ill. Ghebreyesus said they would be taken to the Netherlands.

Health authorities have said that the wider public risk remains low and that the virus spreads much more slowly than previous diseases such as COVID-19.

“When we say close contact [for human-to-human transmission], we mean very close physical contact, whether it’s sharing a bunk room or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example, [that is] very, very different to COVID and very different to influenza,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, told the news service Reuters.

A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a serious and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

Argentinian authorities have said they will send Andes virus RNA and guidelines for diagnosis and treatment to laboratories in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Warming conditions have been linked to the uptick in virus cases, possibly as the changing climate expands the territory of rodents that can spread the disease. The Argentinian Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that it has recorded 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, about twice the caseload recorded over the same period last year.

“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentinian infectious disease specialist, told The Associated Press news agency. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”