The World Health Organisation has hosed down fears of another pandemic amid a scramble to trace dozens of passengers who disembarked from an infected cruise ship.

Countries across the globe are trying to track down people who left the MV Hondius before the deadly hantavirus outbreak was reported.

The WHO said on Friday (AEST) that the outbreak was not the start of another pandemic like Covid six years ago.

“This is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently,” WHO infectious disease epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove said.

The organisation’s director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the public health risk had been assessed as “low”.

Three people have died — including a Dutch couple and a German national. So far, eight people are suspected to have contracted the virus, according to the WHO.

About 40 passengers disembarked the ship in Santa Helena, including one of four Australians on board, when it stopped on its way to Cape Verde before the outbreak emerged, according to reports.

The whereabouts of many of these passengers is not yet known.

One of those to disembark was the wife of the Dutchman who died aboard the ship on April 11. She fell sick herself and died before ‌she could reach the ‌Netherlands.

Dutch airline KLM said on ⁠Wednesday it took the woman off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25 due to her ​deteriorating medical condition.

According to broadcaster RTL, a KLM stewardess who had been in contact with her has been admitted to hospital in Amsterdam after showing possible symptoms of a hantavirus infection.

The Dutch health ministry did not mention the woman’s job or who she might have been in contact with, but did confirm that a Dutch woman had been admitted to hospital and would be tested to determine whether she had the hantavirus.

The virus found in the victims has been confirmed as the Andean strain, which ‌can spread among ​humans through very close contact.

Experts have stressed that contagion is very rare and requires very close contact, but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert.

The US Centres for Disease ‌Control and Prevention said it was closely monitoring the situation with US travellers on board the Hondius. But it said the risk to the American public was extremely ​low at the time.

One French citizen has been in contact with a person who had fallen ill but was not showing symptoms, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Argentina’s health ministry has said it will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the ​cruise ​ship.

The Hondius, with almost 150 people ​on board, headed for Spain late on Wednesday. It was expected to dock in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, on Sunday, the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said.

There is still no one showing any hantavirus symptoms on the ship, the ECDC, which is part of the medical team onboard the Hondius, said. It is working with Spanish authorities to finalise a protocol for disembarkation.

Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, while 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid.

Three patients were evacuated from the ​ship on Wednesday.

One has been admitted to a hospital in the Netherlands, while another was transferred to Germany for medical care.

The plane carrying ​the third patient landed in the Netherlands on ⁠Thursday after a delay due to a problem with the patient’s life support system.

-with AAP