Hantavirus outbreak linked to cruise ship travel, Multi-locations was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Thursday, 2 July 2026 at 18:27 UTC. The event is classified as a epidemic incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the World Health Organization (WHO).
This is the fifth Disease Outbreak News posting on the Andes hantavirus (ANDV) outbreak linked to the cruise ship M/V Hondius. The outbreak identification followed the notification to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 2 May 2026 of severe acute respiratory illness cases onboard. Since the previous Disease Outbreak News was published on 28 May 2026, one of the probable cases from Tristan da Cunha, an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (hereafter referred to as the United Kingdom), was laboratory confirmed. As of 2 July, a total of 13 cases, including three deaths, have been notified (case fatality ratio 23%). Twelve cases have been laboratory-confirmed for ANDV infection, and one is a probable case. All confirmed cases are among individuals who travelled onboard the M/V Hondius. Among the ten cases admitted to hospitals, eight have reco
Where this happened
The incident is located in United Kingdom (Europe), whose capital is London. Historically, United Kingdom is most affected by floods, storms and heatwaves. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the United Kingdom incident tracker.
Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 55.400°, -3.400°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.
Understanding epidemic events
Disease outbreaks including cholera, dengue, measles, Ebola and influenza. Outbreak trajectories depend on transmission route, population immunity and the speed of detection. Early case-finding, clean water and vaccination coverage change outcomes far more than late-stage restrictions.
How severity is rated
Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Severe. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.
Safety guidance for epidemic situations
- Follow official case definitions and testing guidance rather than social-media claims.
- Prioritise clean water, hand hygiene and safe food handling during any outbreak.
- Keep routine vaccinations up to date; they carry most of the protective effect.
- Seek care early if you belong to a high-risk group.
- Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.
Data and verification
This record was generated automatically from the World Health Organization (WHO) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.
Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every epidemics and outbreaks we track on the Epidemic tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.
Timeline and sources
Officially recorded
An official record exists from World Health Organization. That confirms the event was recorded; figures quoted from news reports are not confirmed by it.
How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.
-
· received · event time 2 Jul 2026, 18:27 UTCFirst report Humanitarian agency report
First recorded from World Health Organization.
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.
Conditions at the time
Light rain of 3.3 mm was recorded, and the temperature peaked at 12°C, and winds reached 33 km/h.
Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.