2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 11, 2026 07:51 AM IST
TWO INDIAN crew members on board the MV Hondius, which was at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak, have been evacuated to the Netherlands where they will be quarantined, according to the Indian embassy in Madrid. All the individuals on-board the ship reached Spain on Sunday.
“The passengers onboard disembarked from the ship, in accordance with the protocol established by the WHO and Spanish authorities…. As informed by the Spanish National Centre for Emergency Monitoring and Coordination (CENEM), the two Indian nationals who were travelling as crew members, have been evacuated to the Netherlands where they will be quarantined,” the communication from the Indian Embassy in Spain said.
The ship had anchored off the coast of the Canary Islands of Spain.
The ship was carrying 147 people on-board, including 59 crew members, from 23 countries.
According to the current information available from the WHO, shared by health ministry officials, there were eight suspected cases of the infection on the vessel. Of these, five have been confirmed with laboratory tests. And, three deaths have been reported so far. The WHO was notified about the incident in the first week of this month.
Those who died included an adult male who developed fever, headache, and mild diarrhoea on April 6. He developed respiratory distress by April 11 and died the same day. An adult female, who was a close contact of the first person, developed gastrointestinal symptoms after disembarking at Saint Helena on April 24. Her health deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg and died on April 26. An adult female, who got a fever and started feeling unwell on April 28, died with pneumonia on May 2.
