KLM Crew Tests Negative After Close Contact With Hantavirus Victims

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A KLM flight attendant who had close contact with one of the hantavirus victims who passed away, on Friday, May 8, 2026, has been declared negative for the disease.

The flight attendant was on a KLM flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam on April 25, 2025, along with the woman who was confirmed to be infected with hantavirus.

Through a written statement to journalists as reported by Dutch News, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated through their representatives in the Netherlands that the flight attendant did not contract hantavirus.

According to the World Health Organization, the flight attendant was taken to Amsterdam UMC hospital upon arriving in the Netherlands last Wednesday. After showing mild symptoms, she was placed in self-isolation.

A spokesperson for the Kennemerland regional health council said on Thursday that fewer than 10 people on the flight had close contact with the hantavirus patient. They were all individuals who aided the ill Dutch woman.

They will continue to be monitored to ensure that none of them have contracted hantavirus.

"These are the people who provided assistance. They will be actively monitored. Experts are currently consulting on which measures are appropriate," they said.

Meanwhile, Kennemerland also identified 60 people who had contact with the 69-year-old Dutch woman who passed away due to hantavirus. "The five people include a flight attendant from Haarlem who was hospitalized with mild symptoms this week,'" the GGD Health Service quoted NL Times.

Previously, a Dutch man who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship with his wife passed away on board on April 11.

The man's body was taken off the ship on April 24 to Saint Helena, a South Atlantic island where 29 other passengers disembarked, the ship's operator said.

Oceanwide Expeditions stated that all passengers have been contacted, while the company continues gathering details of everyone who boarded and disembarked from the Hondius vessel at various stops since March 20.

12 Affected Countries

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as reported by Anadolu said that they have informed 12 countries that their citizens disembarked from the cruise ship affected by the hantavirus outbreak in Saint Helena.

These 12 countries are Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Tedros stated that the first two confirmed cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay before boarding the ship, including a visit to a bird-watching site where the Andes virus-carrying rodents were present.

The MV Hondius cruise ship is currently en route to Spain and is scheduled to arrive on Saturday, May 9, 2026. Two Dutch doctors and a WHO expert are now on board.

"None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship are currently symptomatic," Tedros said in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Read: WHO: Hantavirus Outbreak Not a Pandemic Threat

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