Cruise ship stranded as sick crew await evacuation amid hantavirus outbreak; human-to-human transmission suspected

The cruise ship carrying almost 150 passengers at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak was marooned in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, waiting for two ill crew members to be evacuated for treatment.

The cruise ship carrying almost 150 passengers at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak was marooned in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, waiting for two ill crew members to be evacuated for treatment.

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Some rare human-to-human transmission of the virus may have taken place on the luxury cruise ship, the World Health Organization said in an update.

At least three people have been killed, while there are two laboratory-confirmed cases and five suspected cases of hantavirus, the WHO said in a briefing early Tuesday. Tests are ongoing in South Africa on the nature of the infection, but WHO experts suspect it is the Andes variant, which is transmissible from person to person.