Three people have died and five others have fallen ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.
Two of the dead are a Dutch couple. The man, 70, suddenly developed fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhoea and died on arrival at the island of St Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic.
The woman, 69, was evacuated to South Africa, where she died in a Johannesburg hospital. A third fatality was still on board, according to a source cited by AFP.
A British national aged 69 is in intensive care in Johannesburg and has tested positive for the virus, local officials said.
The outbreak was reported aboard the MV Hondius, a polar cruise ship run by Oceanwide Expeditions carrying around 150 tourists from various countries. The vessel departed Ushuaia in southern Argentina on 20 March and was due to arrive in Cape Verde on 4 May.
Hantavirus is usually passed to humans from rodents via their urine or faeces and can cause severe respiratory illness.
