A cruise ship moored off the coast of West Africa is battling an outbreak of a rare and deadly rodent-spread illness called hantavirus. International health authorities are responding to the situation on board the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship, MV Hondius , which departed Ushuaia, Argentina , on April 1. Since then, at least three individuals among the ship's 147 passengers and crew have died and four more have been reported ill, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). One patient is in intensive care in South Africa. “We understand this patient is improving,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s chief of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said in a press conference on May 5. Another patient with a confirmed case of hantavirus was identified by Swiss authorities on May 6 as a man who had traveled on the first leg of the cruise from April 1 to 24.…