DOZENS of cruise passengers left a hantavirus-hit ship without contact tracing, raising global health concerns, it was revealed today.

The news came as the Dutch health ministry said a woman not on the ship was being tested for hantavirus after showing symptoms.

She was part of a flight crew and had contact with an infected passenger.

If she tests positive, she could be the first known person not on the MV Hondius to become infected.

More than two dozen passengers from at least 12 different countries left the vessel at St Helena on April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board, the ship operator and Dutch officials said.

Three cruise passengers have died, and several others are sick.

Three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated to hospitals in Europe.

The first victim’s body was taken off at St Helena, where his wife also disembarked. She flew to South Africa and died there.

The company said 29 passengers left at St Helena, while the Dutch Foreign Ministry put the number at about 40.

The company had not previously acknowledged that dozens left at that time.

The first confirmed hantavirus case in a passenger was on May 2, in a British man evacuated to South Africa.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and, in rare cases, person to person, according to the World Health Organisation, whose top epidemic expert said the public risk is low.

A man tested positive in Switzerland after disembarking at St Helena.

Singaporean authorities said they were monitoring two men who got off at St Helena and flew home.

British officials say two passengers who flew home midway are self-isolating without symptoms.

The vessel is now sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands with more than 140 people still on board.

The body of the third fatality, a German woman, remains on the ship.

Tests have confirmed that at least five people were infected with the Andes virus, which can cause severe lung disease.

The Andes strain is the only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.

The ship departed from Argentina, and investigations into the source are focusing on that country.