Hantavirus Outbreak Over, WHO Director-General Declares

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has declared the hantavirus outbreak that emerged in May 2026 over.

The outbreak was linked to a foreign traveller, a 69-year-old Dutch woman who collapsed on arrival at O. R. Tambo International Airport on April 25 after travelling on Airlink flight 4Z 132 from the British island of Saint Helena.

She died the following day, and South African authorities confirmed on May 3 that hantavirus was the cause of death.

The case later prompted international monitoring after exposure was linked to passengers aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, which had departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, and was sailing to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands after being held off the coast of Cape Verde.

At the time, WHO assessed the global public health risk as low, while passengers who had disembarked earlier were monitored in countries including Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Announcing the end of the outbreak in a post on X on Thursday, Ghebreyesus said the final contact of the infected person had completed quarantine and tested negative.

“Today, the final contact of a person exposed to #hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius completed their quarantine period, tested negative and returned home.

“No further cases have been reported since the 25th of May. Therefore, @WHO considers the hantavirus outbreak over,” he said.

Hantavirus is a rodent-borne disease rarely reported outside the Americas, Europe and parts of Asia. It first drew global attention in 1993 after a cluster of deaths in the southwestern United States was traced to a strain carried by deer mice.

Since then, cases have been reported across South America, particularly in Argentina and Chile, as well as in parts of Europe.