A suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship has claimed three lives. The 20 British passengers evacuated from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak arrived at an isolation facility after their repatriation flight landed in the UK on Sunday. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday there were now seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of the hantavirus and two other suspected cases, including one person who died before being tested. Hantaviruses, which have been present for centuries, have a documented history of outbreaks across Asia and Europe, but they rarely pass between humans. In the Eastern Hemisphere, these viruses have been associated with severe conditions such as haemorrhagic fever and kidney failure. A distinct group of hantaviruses emerged in the early 1990s in the southwestern United States, leading to the acute respiratory disease now known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.…