Hantavirus-hit cruise ship leaves Cape Verde after three evacuated

Two people in a serious condition who were evacuated from a cruise ship with a confirmed outbreak of deadly hantavirus have arrived in the Netherlands for treatment, operator Oceanwide Expeditions has said.

A third passenger in a stable condition was on board an evacuation flight that has been delayed, the operator added.

The MV Hondius is now sailing towards Spain's Canary Islands after being anchored for three days near Cape Verde, an archipelago nation off the West African coast.

The three evacuees were British, Dutch and German. Oceanwide Expeditions said the German evacuee was "closely associated" with a German woman who died on board the ship on 2 May.

Meanwhile, two US states have confirmed to the BBC that they are monitoring three passengers who had returned to the US after disembarking earlier. All are currently not displaying symptoms.

Georgia's public health department said two residents were being monitored and were in good health, showing no signs of infection.

Arizona's health department said one resident who was being monitored, but was not symptomatic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also confirmed a man who had travelled back to Switzerland after disembarking the ship tested positive for hantavirus and is receiving care at a hospital in Zurich.

"The patient had responded to an email from the ship's operator informing the passengers of the health event," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

A total of 146 people from 23 different countries remain aboard the MV Hondius under "strict precautionary measures", Oceanwide Expeditions said.

In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said eight cases of hantavirus - three confirmed and five suspected - have so far been identified in people who were on the ship.

South African health authorities have said the Andes strain of hantavirus - prominent in Latin America, where the cruise originated - was found in two of the confirmed patients after tests were carried out by the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Experts have observed the Andes strain spreading between human patients in previous outbreaks. South Africa says efforts to trace all contacts remain underway.

Three people who were aboard the ship have died since it set sail from Argentina a month ago. Officials have said that one of the deceased had the virus, while the other two deaths are under investigation.

One of the deaths include a Dutch woman who left the MV Hondius when it stopped at the island of St Helena on 24 April. Her husband died on board on 11 April, but is not a confirmed case.

The Dutch woman travelled to South Africa, where she died on 26 April. WHO official Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told the BBC that health experts were carrying out contact tracing on the flight she took.