A hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship has resulted in three deaths, including a Dutch couple and a German national, and prompted a global effort to track passengers who may have been exposed. The ship, with nearly 150 people on board, is currently marooned off the coast of Cape Verde and is expected to dock in Spain's Tenerife by Saturday.

The Dutch government has reported that around 40 passengers disembarked the ship in Santa Helena before the outbreak was reported, and the whereabouts of many of these passengers are currently unknown. One of those to disembark was the wife of the Dutchman who died aboard the ship, and she later died herself.

The World Health Organisation has reported that eight people, including a Swiss citizen, are suspected to have contracted the virus, and experts have stressed that contagion is very rare but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert. The US CDC has said it is closely monitoring the situation with US travellers on board the ship, and the risk to the American public is extremely low.

The immediate next steps include the docking of the ship in Tenerife, where non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, and 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid. The plane carrying the third evacuated patient was set to land in the Netherlands early on Thursday, after facing a delay due to a problem with the patient's life support system. The Argentine health ministry will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship.