THE HAGUE, Netherlands — About 40 passengers aboard the expedition ship MV Hondius disembarked on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena after a hantavirus outbreak struck the vessel, Dutch officials said Thursday.
Among those who left the ship was the wife of a Dutch man who died during the outbreak. The cruise company said she disembarked at St. Helena with her husband’s body, later flew commercially to South Africa and then collapsed and died at Johannesburg’s airport. The company had not previously acknowledged that additional passengers had left the ship at St. Helena.
Health authorities in South Africa and several European countries are working to trace contacts of passengers who left the Hondius. On Wednesday it emerged that a man in Switzerland tested positive for hantavirus after also disembarking at St. Helena and returning home; details of his movements remain unclear.
Dutch officials have not confirmed the current whereabouts of the other passengers who left the ship at St. Helena.
The cruise company said a British man was evacuated from the Hondius to South Africa from Ascension Island a few days later. Separately, three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated near Cape Verde and transported to Europe for treatment on Wednesday.
Three passengers have died in the outbreak and several others remain ill.