About 40 passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak previously disembarked on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena after the first passenger died, Dutch officials said Thursday

ByThe Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- About 40 passengers on a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak previously disembarked on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena after the first passenger died, Dutch officials said Thursday.

The dozens of passengers, including the wife of a Dutch man who died, left the cruise ship during a stop at the British territory, the Dutch foreign ministry said.

The Dutch cruise company that operates the ship previously said the Dutch woman disembarked the ship with her husband's body at St. Helena. She then flew to South Africa on a commercial plane and died after collapsing at an airport in Johannesburg.

However, the company had not acknowledged that anyone else got off the ship at St. Helena.

Authorities in South Africa and Europe are trying to trace contacts of any passengers who got off the ship. It emerged Wednesday that a man tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland after he also disembarked at St. Helena and flew home, though his precise movements aren’t clear.

Dutch authorities did not confirm where other passengers who disembarked are now.

A British man was evacuated from the ship to South Africa from Ascension Island days later, according to the company, while three people, including the ship's doctor, were evacuated from the ship while it was near Cape Verde and taken to Europe for treatment on Wednesday.

Three passengers have died in the outbreak, and several others are sick.