https://www.scmp.com/rss/519155/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse France’s health minister said on Thursday that 26 people in France identified as close contacts of hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship had tested negative for the illness. Dutch authorities said that all people who arrived in the Netherlands on evacuation flights from the ship this week have also tested negative. Twenty-six people are in hospital isolation in France, including 22 identified as close contacts of a Dutch woman on the MV Hondius that was at the centre of an... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353595/france-netherlands-say-all-hantavirus-contact-cases-negative?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353595/france-netherlands-say-all-hantavirus-contact-cases-negative?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 May 2026 12:27:52 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Argentina’s city “at the end of the world” Ushuaia, the jump-off point for expeditions to the Antarctic, has been labouring under suspicion of being the source of the deadly hantavirus outbreak that killed three cruise ship passengers. The MV Hondius set sail from this spectacular Patagonian port, sandwiched between snow-capped mountains and the South Atlantic, on April 1. Five days later, a Dutch man who had travelled through South America on a birdwatching trip with his wife, developed... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3353371/argentine-city-tries-shrug-hantavirus-ship-patient-zero-suspicions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3353371/argentine-city-tries-shrug-hantavirus-ship-patient-zero-suspicions?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 May 2026 04:48:40 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press A Spanish passenger evacuated from the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, Spain’s health ministry announced on Tuesday as the World Health Organization said it has now confirmed 11 cases, including three people from the cruise who died. The passenger with the new confirmed case of hantavirus was in quarantine in a military hospital in Madrid, where 13 other Spanish nationals evacuated on Sunday – who all tested negative for the virus – also are... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353299/spain-reports-new-hantavirus-case-outbreak-grows-11?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353299/spain-reports-new-hantavirus-case-outbreak-grows-11?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 May 2026 11:35:01 +0000 dpa dpa British paratroopers landed on a “golf course covered in rocks” to supply medical personnel and oxygen to Britain’s most remote overseas territory as it deals with a suspected hantavirus case, an army commander said on Sunday. The UK Health Security Agency confirmed on Friday that a British national had disembarked from the cruise ship MV Hondius to the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where they live, with a suspected case of hantavirus. Six paratroopers, a Royal Air Force (RAF)... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353102/paratroopers-jump-britains-most-remote-inhabited-island-hantavirus-mission?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353102/paratroopers-jump-britains-most-remote-inhabited-island-hantavirus-mission?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 May 2026 05:10:53 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The first plane carrying passengers from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship left Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday for Madrid, where they will be taken to a military hospital. Spanish nationals were the first to leave the MV Hondius, which remains anchored off Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa. The ship arrived hours earlier. None of the more than 140 people on the Hondius have shown symptoms of the virus, Spain’s health ministry, the World Health... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353021/hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-nears-canary-islands-who-led-evacuation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353021/hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-nears-canary-islands-who-led-evacuation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 May 2026 01:59:18 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse UK health authorities are gearing up to receive about 24 people from a virus-hit cruise ship, who will be isolated in a hospital once used for Covid-19 patients, NHS officials said Saturday. They are currently on board the Dutch ship, the MV Hondius, due to anchor off Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday. Most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home to their home countries after weeks at sea, in a carefully prepared repatriation effort. Among them are about 24 British... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353018/hantavirus-outbreak-uk-isolate-cruise-ship-passengers-ex-covid-hospital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3353018/hantavirus-outbreak-uk-isolate-cruise-ship-passengers-ex-covid-hospital?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2026 17:15:25 +0000 Reuters Reuters Two new suspected cases of hantavirus were ⁠reported on Friday, one in Spain and the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, as experts race to contain an outbreak that began on a luxury cruise ship. The announcements in locations thousands of kilometres apart will fuel concern about a cluster of cases so far associated with three deaths, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly said the risk to the wider public is low and the virus does not transmit... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352958/new-suspected-hantavirus-cases-found-spain-and-remote-tristan-da-cunha?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352958/new-suspected-hantavirus-cases-found-spain-and-remote-tristan-da-cunha?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 May 2026 16:59:09 +0000 Agence France-Presse,Associated Press Agence France-Presse,Associated Press Passengers aboard a cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will start being flown to their countries of origin after the vessel arrives in the Canary Islands on Sunday, the Spanish government said on Friday. The MV Hondius is scheduled to reach the port of Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Sunday morning, cabinet minister Angel Victor Torres told journalists. “That same day, we will have planes available and will be able to start getting these... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352939/spain-repatriate-guests-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-heads-canaries?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352939/spain-repatriate-guests-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-heads-canaries?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 May 2026 12:06:25 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The World Health Organization insisted on Thursday that a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic did not mark the beginning of a Covid-like crisis. “This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic,” WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters, insisting: “This is not Covid.” The WHO also said it expected the outbreak on the MV Hondius, currently sailing from Cabo Verde (formerly known as Cape... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352806/who-says-cruise-ship-hantavirus-outbreak-not-start-pandemic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3352806/who-says-cruise-ship-hantavirus-outbreak-not-start-pandemic?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2026 15:08:39 +0000 Reuters Reuters Countries worldwide scrambled on Thursday to trace people who had left the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak before it got marooned off the coast of Cabo Verde, to prevent further spread of the disease. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died in the outbreak on the MV Hondius. Five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases have now been confirmed, according to the World Health Organization. The vessel’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said 29 passengers left the ship on... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352775/nations-race-track-passengers-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352775/nations-race-track-passengers-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2026 10:53:42 +0000 Reuters Reuters It was billed as an Atlantic odyssey to some of the most remote islands in the world. Instead, the cruise on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius was left stranded off Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, with passengers in their cabins, medical workers in protective suits tending to the sick and the ship’s operator seeking a safe port. The outbreak has left three dead and eight confirmed or suspected cases linked to the ‌Dutch-flagged expedition ship. Passengers, some of whom have been... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352673/passengers-hantavirus-stricken-ship-sway-between-fear-and-boredom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352673/passengers-hantavirus-stricken-ship-sway-between-fear-and-boredom?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 May 2026 21:00:29 +0000 Reuters Reuters A ⁠luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly ⁠hantavirus outbreak and marooned for days off the coast ⁠of Cabo Verde with close to 150 people on board was due to head to Spain, while South Africa confirmed it identified among the victims a strain of the virus that can – in rare cases – spread among humans. The ship will dock “within three days” at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, Spain’s health minister said on Wednesday, despite opposition from the Canary Islands regional government. “A joint... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352594/spain-opens-port-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-who-suspects-human-transmission?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352594/spain-opens-port-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-who-suspects-human-transmission?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 May 2026 08:03:01 +0000 Reuters Reuters The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it suspects some rare human-to-human transmission of the deadly hantavirus took place between very close contacts on board a luxury cruise ship hit by seven confirmed or suspected cases. Human-to-human transmission is not common, and the UN health agency reiterated that the risk to the wider public was low from a disease typically spread from contact with infected rodents. A Dutch couple and a German national have died, while a British national... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352543/deadly-hantavirus-may-have-spread-between-humans-luxury-cruise-risk-low-who?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3352543/deadly-hantavirus-may-have-spread-between-humans-luxury-cruise-risk-low-who?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 May 2026 20:12:38 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Abandoned for months on their fishing boat off West Africa, Indonesian sailor Surono and his shipmates face a dilemma: return home without almost a year’s wages or stay on the docked vessel. He is among a growing number of migrant workers abandoned by shipowners, who flout their obligations and desert crews without paying the salaries owed. “My family cries because I can’t get any money. My children and wife need money to eat,” Surono, 47, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said from... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3342881/bitter-choice-indonesian-sailors-abandoned-africa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3342881/bitter-choice-indonesian-sailors-abandoned-africa?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 05:03:21 +0000 Reuters Reuters Spanish police have broken up a vast cocaine trafficking operation ‌that used speed boats to bring the drug ‍onshore from floating bases in the Atlantic, seizing around 10 tonnes of the drug and arresting 105 suspects. Police said on ⁠Monday that a year-long investigation in cooperation with law enforcement in countries including Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, Colombia, France, Portugal and the US showed the group brought an estimated 57 tonnes ‍of cocaine to Europe in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3341349/spain-busts-cocaine-trafficking-operation-used-floating-bases-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3341349/spain-busts-cocaine-trafficking-operation-used-floating-bases-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 05:15:53 +0000