The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is examining the possibilities of a medical evacuation of a “few individuals” from the cruise ship MV Hondius, a spokesperson said to ANP. Three people on board the ship have died after falling ill, including a Dutch couple from Friesland. Another three people are ill, including a Dutch crew member and two Britons. At least one person has been diagnosed with the hantavirus.

It is not necessarily the case that the evacuated individuals will be Dutch nationals. The Netherlands is coordinating a possible evacuation because the MV Hondius is a Dutch-flagged ship, the Ministry spokesperson told the news wire. Consequently, the Netherlands bears responsibility for the safety of and on board the ship.

Of the three people who are ill and still alive, one British passenger is in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. This person has tested positive for hantavirus, a virus typically transmitted to people through rodent droppings and urine, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. The WHO spoke of one confirmed and five suspected cases of hantavirus.

The other two ill people are crew members, a Dutch national and a British national, Oceanwide Expeditions reported via a communications agency. Both are still on board the cruise ship.

The two Dutch nationals who died are a 69-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman from Haulerwijk in Friesland, the couple’s family announced via Namens de Familie, an organization that assists the loved ones of victims in crimes or tragedies, Omrop Fryslan reported. According to the organization, the man died on April 11 and the woman on April 26.

“The beautiful journey they were taking together has been abruptly and definitively cut short,” the family said. “We cannot yet comprehend that we have to miss them. We want to bring them home in peace and privacy and commemorate them. And we would like to ask the media not to share names, images, or personal details about the couple and us as family.”

According to information NOS received, the Dutch man was the first person to start showing symptoms of the hantavirus.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) stressed that it is now important to determine exactly which variant of the hantavirus is involved. Most variants of the virus do not spread between humans, but there are rare variants that can spread from person to person, Chantal Reusken, a virologist and researcher at the RIVM, told ANP.

There are about 20 to 30 variants of hantavirus that can infect humans. One hantavirus, the Andes virus, is known to be transmissible from person to person in small clusters. This variant occurs in South America and causes more severe symptoms like heart and respiratory problems.

“It cannot be ruled out that this is the variant. The cruise ship has been in South America, and the description of the symptoms is consistent with this,” Reusken said. The time between infection and symptoms is two to four weeks, on average, also for the Andes virus.