Topline
Jay Battacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday on CNN the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic was “not COVID,” suggesting he does not believe it poses pandemic-level risk and his agency doesn’t “want to cause a public panic”, as the U.S. prepares for the return of 18 passengers from the ship.
Timeline
The passengers and a “limited number” of crew members onboard the MV Hondius began disembarking at the port of Granadilla, Spain, on Sunday morning, cruise ship operators said, beginning at 6:24 a.m. local time.
The passengers were “transferred immediately” to aircraft taking them to their home countries, Oceanwide Expeditions said.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, is on the ground overseeing the operation along with members of the Spanish Health Ministry, and posted a video of a bus taking passengers to charter aircraft.
Planes left Tenerife Airport taking former passengers to Spain and France by 11:30 a.m. GMT, Reuters reported, while aircraft headed to other countries including the U.S. and Canada are awaiting departure.
None of the passengers were exhibiting symptoms of the virus, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said at a press conference on Sunday.
Meanwhile, British Army paratroopers parachuted with medical supplies and clinicians down to Tristan da Cunha, the remote British island territory in the South Atlantic where a man who was a former passenger on the ship remains in isolation after developing symptoms of the virus.
The passengers headed to the United States disembarked later on Sunday, CNN reported citing a later news conference with García, including 17 U.S. citizens and one British national who lives in the U.S.
The group will be flown to a quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska, Bhattacharya told CNN host Jake Tapper, where they will be interviewed and assessed for risk for being in close contact with a symptomatic passenger.
“This is not COVID, Jake, and we don’t want to treat it like COVID,” Bhattacharya said, noting that “we want to treat it with hantavirus protocols that, again, were successful in the past.”
CDC officials have said after the U.S. passengers are assessed at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska, they can isolate at the unit or return home where they will keep contact with health officials for the next 42 days.
Robin May, a British health official, told The Guardian the passengers who will soon return home may be asked to self-isolate, most likely at home, for 45 days.
Spanish passengers will reportedly undergo voluntary quarantine at the Gómez Ulla Central Defense Hospital in Madrid, according to a Thursday report from Politico, which cited Defense Minister Margarita Robles—though García has said if the passengers do not voluntarily isolate, authorities have “sufficient legal instruments to adopt the necessary measures to protect public health.”
Ghebreyesus issued a lengthy statement to the Spanish island of Tenerife on Saturday, saying he will travel to the island to watch the tightly monitored operation to transport passengers of the Hondius, who remain asymptomatic, back to their respective countries.
Passengers will be transported to the island's airport in sealed and guarded vehicles on Sunday, Ghebreyesus said (read here for further details on the evacuation process).
ABC News cited an unnamed official from the Canarias Region government of Spain who said passengers will wear full protective equipment and that those who are not ready to be taken to an airplane of their destination will remain on the ship.
CBS News on Friday evening that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention activated a level three emergency response for the hantavirus ship outbreak, the agency’s lowest level of emergency response that involves the activation of disease experts, their staff and potential involvement from staff at the CDC’s Emergency Activation Center.
Unnamed sources toldCNN cites unnamed health officials in reporting the estimated 17 Americans onboard the cruise ship will be escorted on a charter flight and taken to the National Quarantine Unit, a federally funded quarantine facility in Omaha. Forbes has reached out to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more information.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill says two state residents are being monitored after they were potentially exposed to a cruise passenger with hantavirus after that person disembarked the ship, joining local health officials in California, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and Virginia in monitoring potential contacts.
Spanish health official Javier Padilla says a 32-year-old woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante (who shared an airplane with a MV Hondius cruise ship passenger confirmed to have hantavirus) is now showing symptoms consistent with the disease, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected cases to nine (see map below).
Two residents of Singapore who were onboard the cruise ship during the outbreak and were on the same flight as the patient who later died have tested negative for the virus, Singaporean officials say.
Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo says the MV Hondius will not be allowed to dock when it arrives in Tenerife on Saturday and will instead anchor off shore, where passengers will be taken to land via small boat only when their evacuation plane is already on the tarmac. Nobody still on the ship is showing symptoms as of Friday, per WHO officials.
U.K. health authorities identify a new suspected case of hantavirus linked to the cruise ship outbreak—a British man on the remote South Atlantic island Tristan da Cunha.
The World Health Organization confirms that a KLM flight attendant, who was isolating in an Amsterdam hospital with mild symptoms after being in brief contact with a hantavirus patient, has tested negative for the virus, supporting WHO experts’ assertion that it can only bey transmitted person-to-person through prolonged, close contact.
President Donald Trump tells reporters the hantavirus outbreak is “very much” under control and “it should be fine,” adding, when asked if Americans should be worried, “I hope not... We’ll do the best we can.”
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, says the United States is “not prepared” to handle a hantavirus outbreak after Trump-era cuts to the CDC and USAID, as well as the country's withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
Doctors speak up to dispute a viral online claim that ivermectin, an FDA-approved parasitic most commonly used as a dewormer for livestock, could be used to treat hantavirus.
Oceanwide Expeditions, operator of the cruise ship MV Hondius, says at least 29 living passengers from 12 countries disembarked the ship and went home after the death of the first passenger on board (before officials knew of the outbreak). Those countries are Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, director of WHO, says some of those passengers shared an airplane to Johannesburg with a woman from the ship who later died.
Ghebreyesus says none of the remaining passengers or crew aboard the MV Hondius are symptomatic, but that “it is possible more cases will be reported” because it can be up to six weeks before those infected with the Andes variant of hantavirus show symptoms. He insisted the public health risk remains “low.”
A Dutch flight attendant who has developed mild symptoms is being tested for the disease after she briefly came into contact with one of the deceased hantavirus patients.
An international team of scientists is working to create a vaccine against hantavirus, the BBC reported.
retiring. There is no word on who will replace him.
The CDC reportedly tells employees Luis Rodríguez, the American official responsible for public health on cruise ships, isWHO epidemic expert Maria Van Kerkhove tells reporters, “This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease. Most people will never be exposed to this.”
The World Health Organization confirms the number of lab-proven hantavirus cases has risen to five and there are still at least three additional suspected cases among cruise ship passengers and crew.
Argentine officials suggested the hantavirus outbreak could have originated from a bird-watching outing that took the deceased Dutch couple to a landfill, where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the virus before boarding the ship, the Associated Press reported.
Health officials confirm the deadly hantavirus outbreak is of a particular disease strain called Andes, one of the deadliest variants of the hantavirus and the only known strain that transmits from person to person.
Spanish health minister Monica Garcia says the MV Hondius is en route to the Granadilla port in Tenerife, Canary Islands, where passengers will be allowed to leave the ship by May 11. Spanish citizens will be quarantined, and people from other countries will be sent home.
Three people in need of medical care, including two in “serious” condition, are evacuated from the MV Hondius and flown to the Netherlands by an air ambulance.
A man who traveled on an earlier leg of the ship’s trip before flying home to Switzerland is hospitalized in Zurich with a strain of the hantavirus. It is the first case stemming from the MV Hondius in which a patient got sick after his return to the mainland, and authorities say they are working to contact trace any possible spread of the illness.
The South African Department of Health says tests performed on infected passengers of the the MV Hondius confirm the Andes virus, one of the deadliest hantavirus diseases with a roughly 40% case fatality rate, is what infected passengers onboard the ship.
The World Health Organization confirms a strain of hantavirus is spreading aboard the ship, with two lab-confirmed cases and five more suspected cases.
Cape Verdean authorities refuse to allow the MV Hondius to dock at the port of Praia, a decision they said is to protect public health.
A German national dies aboard the MV Hondius.
medically evacuated to South Africa from the ship, and is treated in an intensive care unit in Johannesburg. He is confirmed to have a variant of hantavirus.
A British passenger isThe wife of the first victim dies in Johannesburg after collapsing at an airport in South Africa. She was confirmed to have had a variant of the hantavirus.
The MV Hondius leaves Ushuaia, Argentina.
Crucial Quote
“It’s been quite a mammoth effort," professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency, said of contact tracing the ship's passengers. "We will continue to do that if other information arises.”
Where Is The Mv Hondius?
As of Friday morning, the ship is off the coast of Morocco cruising en route to the Canary Islands. Passengers are isolating in their cabins and teams of doctors, surgeons, nurses and laboratory specialists in protective gear are aboard the ship.
Big Number
Almost 150. That's how many people are stuck onboard the Mv Hondius. That total counts people from across 23 countries, including 17 Americans.
Who Are The Hantavirus Patients?
- Suspected case: A 70-year-old Dutch man died aboard the MV Hondius on April 11. Because hantavirus was not suspected at the time of his death, no test samples were taken, but he is now believed to be the first hantavirus case on the ship.
- Confirmed case: The man's 69-year-old wife died shortly after departing the ship with his body. Her blood later tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus.
- Suspected case: A German woman died aboard the ship on May 2. Her body is still on board and has not yet been tested for the disease, but officials suspect she died of hantavirus.
- Confirmed case: A British expedition guide was medically evacuated to South Africa after presenting to the ship's doctor with symptoms. He remains in critical condition, though health officials say he is improving, and tests confirmed he had contracted the Andes virus.
- Confirmed case: A Dutch passenger was evacuated from the ship Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive medical care.
- Confirmed case: A British passenger was evacuated from the ship Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands to receive medical care.
- Confirmed case: A Swiss man who disembarked the ship at a stop in Saint Helena tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus after returning home and is receiving medical care in Zurich.
- Suspected case: A British man on the remote South Atlantic island Tristan da Cunha is suspected to have hantavirus in connection with the cruise, British authorities said Friday.
- Suspected case: A woman in Spain is being tested for hantavirus after she shared a plane with someone with the illness.
- Tested negative: A KLM flight attendant who contracted symptoms after a brief interaction with the now-deceased Dutch woman tested negative for hantavirus, officials said Friday.
What Happens To People Who May Have Been Explosed To Andes Hantavirus?
WHO Technical Officer Anaïs Legand explained Friday that officials are looking to find anyone who may have come in contact with an infected person, and will assess their level of exposure. Each person will then be given a level of risk, and a corresponding action plan, which will include a daily temperature check for 42 days and a daily assessment for any signs of feeling sick. From there it varies by country and level of risk, Legand said, but the WHO recommends a daily check in with a medical professional, either in person, by phone or through an app.
Key Background
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for the Canary Islands off the coast of northwestern Africa, visiting some of the world’s most remote islands along the way. The ship made stops in Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena (where the Dutch man’s body was taken from the ship) and Ascension Island, where the British man was medically evacuated. The ship then sailed for the port of Praia in Cape Verde, but was denied permission to dock. Despite protests from the president of the Canary Islands, Spanish officials later said the ship would be allowed to dock in Tenerife, where passengers can disembark and return to their home countries.
Tangent
A passenger who was aboard the MV Hondius before disembarking several weeks into the journey told the BBC the operator of the cruise ship "didn't inform us about any potential viruses" after the death of the ship's first passenger amid the outbreak. Ruhi Cenet, a Turkish Youtuber, told the agency he is "very unhappy" with how the outbreak was handled and that despite being onboard for almost two weeks after the man's death, passengers were told the man was "not infections" and, therefore, the remaining passengers took no health and safety precautions. "We were together in the lecture rooms. We were all together during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm talking about over 100 passengers. People were socializing, they were sitting side by side," Cenet said of life onboard ship. The ship's operator has said it could not have informed passengers of the disease any sooner because they did not know what killed him and believed his death to be an isolated incident.
What Is The Andes Hantavirus?
Andes is the only hantavirus strain known to be transmitted person to person. People typically get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice—normally when exposed to their urine, droppings and saliva, or sometimes through a bite or scratch—but officials say no rodents have been found on the MV Hondius ship. Andes is found in South America, specifically Argentina and Chile, and person-to-person transmission has been associated only with close and prolonged contact during the early phase of illness, when the virus is more transmissible. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says symptoms of hantavirus usually emerge within a week or two, but can take up to eight weeks in some cases. The agency insists there is a "low" risk to the wider population and agency information shows transmission of the Andes virus is very low when appropriate infection prevention and control measures are taken.
What Are The Symptoms Of Hantavirus?
Hantaviruses cause two syndromes: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, mostly found in the Western Hemisphere, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, found mostly in Europe and Asia. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome causes fatigue, fever, muscle aches, abdominal problems, headaches, chills and dizziness in the early stages, and late symptoms include chest tightness, coughing, shortness of breath and lungs filling with fluid. Of those who develop respiratory symptoms, the mortality rate is 38%. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome affects the kidneys and causes a wide range of symptoms, including blurred vision, low blood pressure, acute shock, internal bleeding and kidney failure. The severity of the disease varies on the strain of hantavirus, and mortality rates range from less than 1% to 15%.
How Is Hantavirus Treated?
There is no specific treatment for hantavirus infections and patients usually receive supportive care like supplemental oxygen for respiratory issues and dialysis in the case of kidney failure. Despite a viral online claim, scientists and doctors have repeatedly said the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin is not a proven treatment.
Surprising Fact
Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, died in February 2025 from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. She was 65.