According to the World Health Organization, this respiratory disease transmitted by rodents is less contagious than Covid, which caused a global epidemic six years ago.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that samples taken from the cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak had tested positive for the " Andean strain" of the virus.
The samples were analyzed at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal.
She indicated that 69 people who had been in contact with confirmed cases were under close surveillance and that the ship's passengers represented 23 nationalities.
Health officials say the risks of a global epidemic from the virus are low. It is said to be less contagious than Covid.
The director-general of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told AFP that the situation was not comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic, adding: "The risk to the rest of the world is low."
The ship has been at the center of an international health alert since Saturday, when the WHO was informed of the deaths of three passengers and the suspicion of a hantavirus infection.
This rare respiratory disease is usually transmitted by infected rodents, most often through urine, feces, and saliva.
The passengers started getting sick a month ago.
A Dutchman died on board on April 11, and his wife, who had left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa, died there 15 days later after also falling ill.
Two other people are still receiving treatment: one in Johannesburg and the other in Zurich, Switzerland.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García Gómez said the ship would dock in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within the next three days, and all foreign passengers would be flown back to their home countries from there, if their health allowed.
The Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1st, and has been anchored off Cape Verde since Sunday, while emergency teams try to manage the situation.
The cruise ship originally had 88 passengers and 59 crew members, representing 23 nationalities on board.
The Zurich patient brings the number of confirmed hantavirus cases to three, with the WHO having already confirmed one of the deaths and indicated that a British passenger currently in intensive care in Johannesburg had tested positive.
There are a total of five other suspected cases, including the two other deaths, the WHO indicated earlier.
The World Health Organization is trying to determine how the hantavirus appeared on the ship, with the first person to die developing symptoms on April 6.
