Health & Medicine

What to know about a rare hantavirus outbreak at sea

It’s unclear if it came from rodents on board or ones encountered on land

A small cruise ship is shown from an aerial view in open water. This ship has had an outbreak of hantavirus.

An outbreak of hantavirus aboard an expeditionary cruise ship, the MV Hondius, shown here off the coast of Cape Verde, has killed three passengers and sickened four other people.

AFP/Getty Images

By Tina Hesman Saey

Seven people aboard a cruise ship may have gotten hantavirus, a deadly illness more often associated with breathing in desert or other land dust.