The Andes strain of the hantavirus that is transmissible between humans has been confirmed in a passenger evacuated to South Africa from a stricken cruise ship, Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s health minister, said on Wednesday.

“The preliminary tests show that, indeed, this is the Andes strain,” Motsoaledi told a parliamentiary committee. “And it happens to be the only strain out of the 38 that is known to cause human to human transmission,” he added.

This comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) is contact-tracing passengers on an Airlink flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg, after a cruise ship passenger on board died from the rare hantavirus.

Airlink confirmed to AFP that the April 25 flight carried 82 passengers and six crew from the British Atlantic island territory.

They included a Dutch woman whose husband died of the virus on the ship and whose condition “deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg”, WHO said in a statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Swiss authorities confirmed that a cruise ship passenger hospitalised with hantavirus in Zurich.

WHO also confirmed evacuations were taking place Wednesday from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship stricken with a deadly outbreak of hantavirus.

Three people, including two crew members, thought to be infected with the virus were being taken off the ship, anchored off Cape Verde.

“The three of them are stable, and one of the three is asymptomatic,” Ann Lindstrand, the WHO representative in Cape Verde, told AFP.

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