Two people in a serious condition who were evacuated from a cruise ship with a confirmed outbreak of deadly hantavirus have arrived in the Netherlands for treatment, operator Oceanwide Expeditions has said.

A third passenger in a stable condition was on board an evacuation flight that has been delayed, the operator added.

The MV Hondius is now sailing towards Spain’s Canary Islands after being anchored for three days near Cape Verde, an archipelago nation off the West African coast.

The three evacuees were British, Dutch and German. Oceanwide Expeditions said the 65-year-old German evacuee was “closely associated” with a German woman who died on board the ship on 2 May.

The British evacuee has been identified by several media outlets as 56-year-old ex-police officer Martin Anstee, who is understood to be in a “stable condition” in the Netherlands.

A 41-year-old Dutch crew member is also among those who have been evacuated.

Separately, Dutch media reported on Thursday that a KLM flight attendant had been admitted to hospital in Amsterdam with hantavirus symptoms.

The stewardess reportedly came into contact with a 69-year-old Dutch woman after she was briefly on board a KLM plane in South Africa but was deemed too ill to fly.

The 69-year-old later died, and her death is being investigated as a suspected hantavirus case by South African health authorities.

Three people who were aboard the ship have died since it set sail from Argentina a month ago.

Meanwhile, two US states have confirmed to the BBC that they are monitoring three passengers who had returned to the US after disembarking earlier. All are currently not displaying symptoms.

Georgia’s public health department said two residents were being monitored and were in good health, showing no signs of infection.

Arizona’s health department said one resident was being monitored, but was not symptomatic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also confirmed a man who had travelled back to Switzerland after disembarking the ship tested positive for hantavirus and is receiving care at a hospital in Zurich.

“The patient had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

A total of 146 people from 23 different countries remain aboard the MV Hondius under “strict precautionary measures”, Oceanwide Expeditions said.

In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said eight cases of hantavirus – three confirmed and five suspected – have so far been identified in people who were on the ship.

South African health authorities have said the Andes strain of hantavirus – prominent in Latin America, where the cruise originated – was found in two of the confirmed patients after tests were carried out by the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Experts have observed the Andes strain spreading between human patients in previous outbreaks. South Africa says efforts to trace all contacts remain underway.

KLM Airlines on Wednesday issued an advisory saying the woman had also briefly been aboard one of their flights from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on 25 April before the crew decided not to let her fly due to her medical condition.

The third fatality – a German woman – is not a confirmed case either. Her body remains on the ship.

None of the three people who were medically evacuated on Wednesday have tested positive for hantavirus so far, but two are showing symptoms.

It comes as the UK’s Health Security Agency said two British people were self-isolating at home in the UK after potential exposure tothe virus on the ship. They left the vessel earlier in its journey and did not have symptoms.

On board, there were 19 passengers and four crew members listed as British, according to figures released by Oceanwide Expeditions on Tuesday.

This included Anstee, who was evacuated on Wednesday.

Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents, but health experts believe that in this case, it may have passed between humans who were in close contact.

Testing to confirm whether other people on the ship have contracted the virus is ongoing. Health officials have stressed that the risk of transmission to the wider public is low.

The vessel had been anchored near Cape Verde before it set off towards the Canary Islands on Wednesday.

Spanish authorities agreed to the move, but the Canary Islands’ president has opposed the plan.

“I cannot allow [the boat] to enter the Canaries,” Fernando Clavijo told Spain’s Onda Cero radio. “This decision is not based on any technical criteria and nor have we been given enough information.”

Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said that everyone on board will undergo a medical assessment when they arrive in Tenerife and, if fit to travel, those from abroad will be repatriated to their home countries.

Spaniards will be sent to a defence hospital in Madrid to quarantine.

The evacuation would “avoid contact” with Canary Island citizens and there would be “no risk” to them when it arrives in Tenerife in the coming days, Garcia said.

Dr Van Kerkhove said the way hantavirus is transmitted “is very different than COVID and flu”.

“We’re not talking about casual contact from very far away from one another,” she said, but “really physical contact”.

[BBC]

The India and Zimbabwe women’s teams are all set to play an international fixture against each other for the first time when Zimbabwe tour India for white-ball fixtures this October.

The tour comprises three T20Is and three ODIs and will be Zimbabwe’s first visit to India; India are yet to tour Zimbabwe for bilateral fixtures.

The three T20Is will be played in Raipur on October 16, 18 and 20, and the ODIs are on October 23, 25 and 28 in Baroda.

The fixtures were announced by the BCCI on Wednesday, along with two home series for the India A women’s side against Australia A in September and England A in December. Both those series comprise three T20s, three List A games and one multi-day fixture.

The India Under-19 women’s team will also host Sri Lanka U-19 in June and July for three T20s and three 50-over games, and England U-19 in November and December for five T20 fixtures.

The Australia A men’s side will tour India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers in September and October, while the Australia U-19 side will visit India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers also in September and October.

[Cricinfo]

Oil prices have dropped and global stock markets have risen following reports that the US and Iran are close to a deal to end the war.

Brent crude futures, the global benchmark oil price, fell to $97 (£73) a barrel after the reports before rebounding to over $101. The price was over $108 earlier in the day.

The FTSE 100 index of London’s largest public firms and Germany’s Dax index closed over 2% up while the French Cac 40 was up 3%. Asian indexes also ended the day higher while the US S&P 500 was up by more than 1% over the day.

The market movements come after Axios reported that the US believes it is close to a one-page document which will end the war and set up detailed nuclear talks.

Hours later, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson told Iranian Students’ News Agency that the US proposal to end the war with Iran was still being considered.

However, not long after that, Trump suggested a deal could still be a way off.

He said on Truth Social that any agreement by the Iranians is “a big assumption” and that a failure to come to a deal will result at bombardments “at a much  higher level and intensity ” than was the case during Operation Epic Fury.

Oil prices are still much higher than the $70 a barrel they were hovering around before the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, which has caused caused production and transportation of oil in the region to slump.

Central to the conflict is Iran’s threat to attack oil ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway south of the country, in response to US-Israeli strikes since 28 February.

About a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually cross the strait, which has been effectively closed for weeks. Global gas prices have also soared since the conflict began.

As for stock markets, the big European bourses are lower than they were at the end of February, while the S&P 500 climbed by more than 1%.

The main Asian markets all rose on Wednesday, with the South Korean Kospi closing up 6.45%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng ending the day up 1.22%, and the Japanese Nikkei finishing 0.38% higher.

The Hang Seng is down since the start of war, but the other two are up.

[BBC]