Three passengers dead after suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship Dutch husband and wife and third unidentified person reported to have died, with three further people taken ill What is hantavirus, the infection thought to have killed three on cruise ship? A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people – including an elderly married couple – and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and South Africa’s health department said on Sunday. The WHO said an investigation was under way but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed.