Cruise ship passenger with hantavirus being treated in Zurich

This aerial view shows health personnel assisting patients onto a boat from the cruise ship MV Hondius, while stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 6, 2026. Photo by - /AFP via Getty Images

Article content

A former passenger on a cruise ship stricken by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is being treated in a Zurich hospital having tested positive for the disease, Swiss authorities said Wednesday.

Article content

The man and his wife, both Swiss nationals, returned to Switzerland, having left the MV Hondius at the Atlantic Ocean island of Saint Helena, the Swiss health ministry told AFP.

Article content

Article content

Article content

“One person has tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland,” said a ministry statement.

Article content

Article content

The man was being treated at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ), which the ministry said was “prepared to deal with such cases”, and “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public”.

Article content

The cruiseship MV Hondius, anchored off the capital of Cape Verde, on May 5. The ship has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday, when WHO was informed of a hantavirus outbreak. Photo by - /AFP via Getty Images

Article content

The MV Hondius visited Saint Helena from April 22 to 24. A weekly scheduled flight left for Johannesburg on April 25.

Article content

One passenger on that flight died in hospital in hospital in South Africa, while a British patient from the ship is in hospital. Both tested positive for hantavirus.

Article content

The statement said the Swiss couple returned home at the end of April, “after travelling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases”.

Article content

The ministry said the patient’s wife had not shown symptoms, but was “self-isolating as a precaution”.

Article content

The Dutch-flagged ship set sail from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1 and has been anchored off Cape Verde since Sunday.

Article content

With the patient in Zurich, the WHO said there were now three confirmed and five suspected hantavirus cases linked to the ship.

Article content

FILE: In this June 15, 2010 file photo, a rat wanders the subway tracks at Union Square in New York. Photo by Frank Franklin Ii /AP

Article content

The WHO said on X the Swiss man “had responded to an email from the ship’s operator (Oceanwide Expeditions) informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich”.

Article content

Article content

Mild symptoms

Article content

Article content

Samples from the patient were sent to Geneva University Hospital, the Swiss reference centre for emerging viral infections.

Article content

“To my knowledge, the patient presented himself in Zurich with mild respiratory symptoms, explaining that he was a passenger on this cruise ship,” Manuel Schibler, head of the Geneva hospital’s virology laboratory, told AFP.

Article content

Schibler said test results that came back Tuesday had indentified the Andes strain of the hantavirus. Normally found in rodents, Andes, circulating in South America, is the only known hantavirus strain that can be passed between humans.

Article content

“It is capable of causing what is called a pulmonary syndrome with respiratory symptoms, even respiratory distress, which, in the worst cases, can lead to death,” said Schibler.

Article content

World Health Organization epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief Maria Van Kerkhove has said the species of hantavirus on board the ship has yet to be confirmed. Photo by Handout /World Health Organization/AFP

Article content

He said Andes had a case fatality rate of 30 to 50 percent, “which is very high for a viral disease” — but cautioned that this was based on diagnosed cases, so the true rate, including asymptomatic and very mild cases, could be much lower.

Article content

He said with the Andes virus, it could be one to three weeks before symptoms appear, and in severe cases, the deterioration could then be “quite quick”.