A timeline of the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak and when passengers fell sick

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

At least three passengers have died and several others are sick and were evacuated from the ship. Health authorities are trying to trace passengers who left the ship previously and people who might have had contact with them.

More than 140 passengers and crew members are still aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius as it heads for Spain's Canary Islands.

Hantavirus is a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, though the World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can’t easily be passed between people.

Here's a timeline of the outbreak:

The ship sets off from Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina. Scheduled stops include Antarctica and several isolated South Atlantic Ocean islands.

A 70-year-old Dutch man becomes sick on board with fever, headache and mild diarrhea. Before boarding, the man and his wife, who is also Dutch, had gone sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, according to WHO.

The Dutch man develops respiratory distress and dies on board. The cause of death could not be determined at the time, according to the cruise company.

Six people join the cruise when the ship stops at the remote archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, a British territory in the South Atlantic. The Dutch man's body remains on board.

The man's body is taken off the vessel at the island of St. Helena, part of the same British territory. His wife disembarks, as do more than two dozen other passengers. The stop was the end of the cruise for some on board.

The Dutch woman, who has symptoms of illness, takes a commercial flight from St. Helena to South Africa. The plane carries 88 passengers and crew members, according to the airline. It's not clear how many other people who got off the MV Hondius take that flight.

The Dutch woman dies in South Africa after collapsing at an airport while trying to board another plane home.

Back on the ship, which has now left St. Helena, a third passenger is sick. The British man is evacuated to Ascension Island. He is later moved to South Africa, where he is put in intensive care in a hospital. He has a high fever, shortness of breath and signs of pneumonia, which can be caused by hantavirus.

Another passenger, a German woman, falls sick on board as the ship sails for Cape Verde off Africa's west coast.

The German woman dies onboard nearly a month after the first passenger fell ill. She is the third fatality.

The same day, South African health authorities receive a positive for hantavirus from tests performed on the British man in intensive care there. It's the first time that the virus is identified in the outbreak.

The World Health Organization says it's responding to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship, which has now arrived in Cape Verde waters.

South African health officials receive a posthumous positive result for hantavirus for the Dutch woman who died after collapsing at an airport. They had decided to test her body after the positive test on the British man.

WHO now considers it an outbreak.

The cruise ship is in a standoff with Cape Verde authorities over whether it can evacuate more sick people and let other passengers and crew members disembark. Cape Verde is sending health workers to the ship to assist but says no one can disembark. Two crew members onboard are seriously ill, including the ship's doctor, and another person is being monitored.

Those three people, two of whom test positive for hantavirus, are evacuated from the ship and flown to specialized hospitals in Europe. The ship then sets sail for Spain's Canary Islands after the country says it will accept it.

Authorities in Switzerland announce another positive hantavirus test on a man who left the cruise earlier in St. Helena, bringing confirmed cases to five.

Health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland say it's the Andes virus, the only hantavirus thought to spread human-to-human. It is found in South America, primarily Argentina and Chile.

Health authorities in Switzerland, Britain, Netherlands, France, Singapore, South Africa and elsewhere are isolating people who previously left the cruise ship and tracing people who might have come into contact with cruise ship passengers.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato via AP)

The MV Hondius cruise ship departs the port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Medics escort a patient, second right, evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, to an ambulance after being flown to Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Mikko Rantanen sustained a torn MCL in his knee during the Olympics, an injury that Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill says kept their standout forward from being himself the rest of the season.

Rantanen missed 15 games for the Stars after getting hurt while playing for bronze medal-winning Finland in February. He returned for the final 10 games of the regular season, with two goals and six assists in that span. He then had one goal and six assists when they lost their first-round playoff series to Minnesota in six games.

“Major injury. Came back, he's very competitive,” Nill said Thursday during his season-ending availability. “Did he come back too soon? Not too soon, but would have been nice to have one or two more weeks to really settle in. He never really got going again.”

In 54 games before the Olympics, Rantanen had 20 goals and 49 assists. The Stars got him in a deadline deal last season, signed him to a $96 million, eight-year extension, and he then an remarkable postseason with nine goals and 13 assists in 18 games when they made the Western Conference final for the third year in a row.

Dallas was done after one round this year, and Rantanen wasn't the only player dealing with a significant injury.

Nill said Rantanen didn’t have and won’t require any surgery, and will benefit from having some extended time off, as well so many of their other players.

“We never had one game where we had a full lineup this whole season and the playoffs,” Nill said “I’ve never seen that before.”

The Stars also go into an offseason when 45-goal scorer Jason Robertson can become a restricted free agent and with longtime captain Jamie Benn pondering a decision on whether to return for an 18th NHL season, all in Dallas.

Top-line center Roope Hintz missed four games after the Olympics because of illness, then tore his left hamstring in two places on March 6 in his only game since. That was after the Stars in December lost Tyler Seguin to an ACL injury.

Miro Heiskanen, their top defenseman, missed the final three games of the regular season after an oblique tear and then sprained an ankle during the playoffs.

Radek Faksa was close to returning from a concussion during the Olympics when his foot got sliced by a skate. He got back for the last two regular-season games and the playoffs, but Nill said the significant cut that also affected a ligament may require further surgery.

Nill said defenseman Nils Lundkvist, who took a skate to his face in Game 4 against the Wild, could have possibly returned had that series gotten to a Game 7.

“A very lucky man. The skate ended up hitting him, really hit into him more than anything,” Nill said. “He had stitches inside and outside, but he also had a concussion.”

Nill plans to reach out soon to Robertson’s agent with the focus of getting the point-a-game forward signed to a new deal.

While there were some talks last summer, and some progress was made, both sides then agreed to put those on hold until after this season.

“He’s a big part of our team. We drafted and developed him, and we want him to be a Dallas Star for the rest of his career,” Nill said.

A second-round pick by the Stars in 2017, Robertson has 490 points (213 goals and 277 assists) in 456 regular-season games. That includes three 40-goal seasons before his 27th birthday this summer, a year before he could become an unrestricted free agent.

Robertson just completed the final season of a $31 million, four-year contract he got after a training camp holdout in 2022. He played all 328 regular-season games in that stretch.

Benn has been the Stars captain since 2013-14, and like last offseason has a decision to make about whether he wants to play another season.

“We’re going to give him a couple of weeks, but I want him back. I think he wants to come back,” Nill said. “But I’m going to give him that time.”

Benn, who turns 37 in July, missed the first 19 games because of a punctured lung and his 60 games played were his fewest in a full 82-game regular season. He had 15 goals and 21 assists while playing on a one-year deal after the end of a $76 million, eight-year deal.

Hall of Fame center Mike Modano is the only player in franchise history with more than Benn’s 1,252 regular-season games, 414 goals and 992 points.

This story has been updated to correct Rantanen's totals of goals and assists in the second and fourth paragraphs.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) looks on after losing Game 6 in the first round of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) looks on after Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy scored during the third period of Game 6 in the first round of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, April 30, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)