Britons on hantavirus-hit ship to be asked to isolate back in UK for 45 days

British passengers onboard a cruise ship hit with a deadly outbreak of hantavirus will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days, a health official has suggested, as two passengers who left the vessel continue to isolate at home in Britain.Neither of the two Britons who left MV Hondius at Saint Helena in late April are reporting symptoms, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKSA).A British crew member was medically evacuated from the ship after falling ill and flown to the Netherlands for specialist care. The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight for remaining Britons onboard the ship who are not displaying symptoms, so they can be repatriated once docking Tenerife in the coming days.Three people on the MV Hondius have died since 11 April. As of Thursday, there have been eight suspected cases, three of which were confirmed as hantavirus – a rare family of viruses carried by rodents – by lab testing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).“It’s important to reassure people that the risk to the general public remains very low,” said Dr Meera Chand, the deputy director for epidemic and emerging infections at the UKHSA.“We are standing up arrangements to support, isolate and monitor British nationals from the ship on their return to the UK and we are contact-tracing anyone who may have been in contact with the ship or the hantavirus cases to limit the risk of onward transmission.”Medical evacuation flight after landing at Schiphol on Thursday. Photograph: Michel van Bergen/EPAIt is understood 19 British nationals were listed among the 150 passengers on the cruise, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members. The outbreak has been linked to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina joined by two passengers before they boarded the ship.Officials in Argentina, from where the cruise departed, are scrambling to determine if the country was the source of the deadly outbreak. The Latin American country, which has reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, is consistently ranked by the WHO as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease.The UKHSA has said that once the ship docks in Tenerife, the remaining British nationals can be repatriated if they do not develop symptoms. It said that none of the British nationals onboard were reporting symptoms, but that they were being closely monitored.Spain’s health minister, Mónica García, said on Wednesday that none of the passengers still onboard the ship were presenting symptoms of the disease and that they would be repatriated to their countries. The 14 Spaniards onboard would be flown to a hospital in Madrid to quarantine, she said.On Monday, South African officials said a British man was in critical condition with the virus and receiving private care in Johannesburg.About 40 passengers are believed to have disembarked the ship on the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena after the first passenger died, according to Dutch officials. Seven British nationals were among those who ledt the ship at Saint Helena, according to operator Oceanwide Expeditions.A flight attendant for the KLM airline showing mild symptoms was being tested for the virus and being admitted to hospital in Amsterdam, a Dutch health ministry spokesperson said.Among the three individuals medically evacuated from the ship on Wednesday was Martin Anstee, a British crew member. The expedition guide and former police officer was flown to the Netherlands and spoke from hospital, saying: “I’m doing OK. I’m not feeling too bad. There are still lots of tests to be done.”Martin Anstee was medically evacuated from the ship after falling ill. Photograph: FacebookIt was a “good sign” Anstee was able to communicate with family, said Prof Robin May, the chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, adding that he would be under investigations for some time. May also told BBC Breakfast on Thursday that the two British nationals who had left the cruise earlier on its course had returned to the UK before the outbreak was detected.“There’s a chance they may have been exposed to the virus, so we have been in contact with them. They have agreed very kindly to self-isolate for the next period of time,” said May, who said the same process would apply to other British nationals onboard, who he suggested would be asked to self-isolate, most likely at home, for 45 days.May said hantaviruses as a group were widespread across the world. The viruses naturally infect rodents and are “occasionally” transmitted to humans, according to the WHO, through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.Hantavirus hell: passengers stuck on cruise ship with deadly virus – The LatestA focus is Andes hantavirus, which has shown evidence of limited human-to-human transmission in the past among close contacts, according to the WHO. Found in South America, it can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. FThe viruses are also found in Europe and Asia, and can cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.May said the Andes virus strain had been studied intently because it was “such a severe disease”, and that there were global efforts to develop vaccines against it. “This is not a virus that spreads easily between humans,” he added, but given it could spread between individuals, “we are contact tracing everyone who might have been in close contact.”He said: “We will continue to support them and their families whilst they self-isolate, probably at home, but obviously depends very much on the individual circumstances, depending on where they live and who they live with, as to what the most appropriate mechanism is for them to self-isolate for the next 45 days.”