British authorities have announced a third suspected case of hantavirus, linked to the outbreak of the infection aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The patient is currently on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where the ship had stopped in mid-April.
So far, two British nationals have been confirmed infected. One is in a stable condition in the Netherlands after being evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, while the other continues to be treated in intensive care in South Africa, where he was transported last month.
A total of five cases of hantavirus have been confirmed, including one of the three passengers who died during the cruise.
The MV Hondius is expected to arrive in the Canary Islands over the weekend, where the British government has arranged a charter plane to return the British passengers and crew still on board to Britain.
Although none of the remaining Britons are currently showing symptoms, health authorities have announced that they will have to self-isolate for 45 days upon returning to the country.
One of those infected is 56-year-old British Martin Anstee, a former police officer and expedition guide on the ship, who was transported to the Netherlands along with a Dutch crew member and a German national. He told the BBC that he was "fine".
Meanwhile, contact tracing is continuing in several countries, including Switzerland and the Netherlands, for passengers who had disembarked the ship before the outbreak was confirmed on May 4.
The World Health Organization has described the situation as a "serious incident", but stressed that the risk to the public remains low and that the outbreak is not comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic.
