Health authorities continue with investigations to clarify how a Dutch couple would have caused a hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Media such as CNN point out that the investigation, carried out by different authorities, including the Ministry of Health of Argentina, seeks to determine the possible origin of the infections and how the virusthat spread mainly by rodents, arrived on a cruise ship full of people.
According to figures that the World Health Organization updated on May 7, eight suspected cases have been detected and five confirmed, in addition to three deaths.
Regarding the couple, the authorities called them the “index case”; that is, the main suspects of carrying the virus to the cruise ship.
According to the official reconstruction published by CNN, the couple, originally from the Netherlands, arrived in Argentina on November 27, 2025 and He began a tour of almost 20 days through the South American country before crossing into Chile.
In Chile, the couple would have traveled by road for almost 24 days. Then he returned to Argentina, according to CNN, through the province of Neuquén, but returned to Chile 12 days later.
The health authorities indicated that the couple traveled from Chile to Mendoza, where they visited different points for 20 days until reaching Misiones. Finally, on March 27 he returned to Argentina, after briefly traveling to Uruguay, to head to Ushuaia, the city where the cruise departed.
Both Argentine and Chilean authorities denied that the couple had been infected in their respective countries and stated that It has not been confirmed that the contagion has occurred in their territories.
CNN indicated that, in Argentina, During 2026, 42 cases of hantavirus have been recorded.
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