JOHANNESBURG — South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Wednesday
morning urged the public not to panic as authorities raced to trace nearly 90 people who
shared a commercial flight with a Dutch tourist who later died of the rare Andes strain of
hantavirus.
In a statement issued just hours ago, Motsoaledi confirmed that preliminary tests have
identified the Andes variant — the only known hantavirus strain linked to human-tohuman transmission in a patient transferred to Johannesburg from the remote
Atlantic island of Saint Helena. The finding marks one of the first confirmed cases of the
strain on the African continent and has triggered a multi-country health response.
The outbreak began aboard the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, which is
currently waiting for assistance off the coast of West Africa after at least three
passengers died and several more fell critically ill. The World Health Organization
(WHO) has now classified the cluster as a “multi-country” event, with cases linked to
Cape Verde, Saint Helena, the Netherlands and South Africa.
Among the dead is a 70-year-old Dutch man who died on board, and his 69-year-old
wife, who passed away days later in Johannesburg after collapsing at OR Tambo
International Airport while in transit back to the Netherlands. A British tourist evacuated
to a Sandton hospital remains in intensive care.
As of Monday, the WHO had logged seven cases — two laboratory-confirmed and five
suspected — including three deaths, one critically ill patient and three with mild
symptoms. South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is
leading contact tracing on the ground.
“There is no need for panic,” Motsoaledi said. “Our teams are following every contact,
every flight, every connection. We are working closely with the WHO and with our
counterparts in Europe.”
The Andes strain, normally found in South America, is what has scientists most worried.
Unlike most hantaviruses, which are spread only through contact with rodent droppings,
Andes virus has documented cases of person-to-person transmission, particularly
among close family members. That makes routine activities — sharing a hospital ward,
a long flight, or a confined cruise cabin — a potential vector.
How the strain reached a Dutch cruise ship in the South Atlantic remains unclear.
Investigators are examining whether infected rodents were taken on board during a port
stop, or whether a passenger boarded already incubating the virus. Cabin crew on the
MV Hondius are reportedly being isolated.
The political stakes are also rising. Tourism authorities in South Africa, Cape Verde and
Saint Helena are bracing for cancellations heading into the southern winter season, and
aviation regulators across the continent are reviewing in-flight illness protocols. Within
hours of Motsoaledi’s statement, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana said they were monitoring
travelers arriving from affected routes.
For ordinary South Africans, the message from the minister was simple: wash your
hands, watch for flu-like symptoms with high fever and shortness of breath, and do not
avoid hospitals out of fear. For investigators, the next 72 hours — as those 90 flight
contacts are tracked down one by one — will determine whether this remains a
contained scare or becomes Africa’s next public health emergency.
