Some are dead, others are ill, and the rest are growing increasingly anxious. In a story that evokes some bad COVID-era memories, passengers aboard the Hondius luxury cruise vessel are being quarantined on the ship as the World Health Organization provides updates on the situation. Here’s what the Daily Caller reported: The Dutch cruise ship requested aid after making its way to Cape Verde, off West Africa’s coast, with 150 aboard, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Laboratory testing verified one case of hantavirus and reported five more suspected cases and three confirmed deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a May 3 post. One person remains in intensive care in South Africa. The WHO said two crew members required urgent medical care. Passengers and crew members remain on the vessel, and are awaiting permission from local authorities in Cape Verde to evacuate the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions said. The Hantavirus is mainly spread by rodent fecal matter and urine and can cause severe sickness and death, and may present itself through symptoms such as “hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome,” according to the CDC. The report went on to detail the condition of those infected thus far: Officials said a 70-year-old Dutch man died April 11 after suffering from a headache, fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea, according to the AP. His body removed from the ship two weeks after. His 69-year-old wife fell at a South African airport and later died in the hospital, according to the South African Department of Health. A sick British man was evacuated from the ship April 27, and is the sole person to have tested positive for hantavirus, officials said. He remains in isolation and in critical condition at a South African Hospital, local health authorities said. A German national was the third passenger pronounced dead and his body is still on the ship, according to Oceanwide Expeditions The situation has fueled significant discussion on social media: Disgusting way to treat those people. They've surely got a hospital on the islands, or fly them to Lisbon. Don't treat fare paying customers like this! Won't be ever travelling on MV Hondius or sister ships. — Perry Smale (@SmalePerry) May 5, 2026 For two years, Maria denied that Covid was an airborne disease. Hard to put a lot of trust in what she says. — Tristan Imgrund (@tristan_sudbury) May 5, 2026 and this is how it starts again … God help us all. — XvT (@xVT66) May 5, 2026 The New York Post provided additional details: The suspected hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which has killed three people and sickened at least seven others, has two likely causes — and both are bad news for the 150 passengers on board, experts said. The more likely scenario would be passengers contracting the virus from the feces, urine or saliva of infected rats or mice. That’s the usual transmission vector, according to physician Zaid Fadul, a former Air Force flight surgeon — although the World Health Organization insisted Tuesday that no rodents have been found on the stranded liner. But there’s one strain of the hantavirus that has an alarming exception — and the one that the WHO conceded “can’t be ruled out.” “The Andes virus — that one specific subtype of the hantavirus — in Argentina, where they were, is the one that’s transmitted person-to-person,” Fadul said. “And that’s where a lot of anxiety in this case is coming from.” This news coverage includes remarks from one of the stranded passengers: https://youtu.be/SzipCfTV5Tw?si=jup9ZVaEBoV-t76q