{"id":694154,"date":"2026-05-25T19:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694154\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:56:11","slug":"hantavirus-stable-for-now-who-leader-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694154\/","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus \u2018stable for now,\u2019 WHO leader says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The threat of deadly hantavirus<\/a> is \u201cstable for now,\u201d World Health Organization<\/a> Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/a> told social media users.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been weeks since the outbreak of the rodent-borne illness<\/a> was first reported on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius.<\/p>\n

Since then, there have been a dozen confirmed hantavirus cases and three related deaths, including a Dutch couple and a German woman.<\/p>\n

Some of the ship\u2019s American passengers were quarantined<\/a> at facilities in the U.S. South, where they remain under surveillance. Others who left the ship before the outbreak was reported are being monitored in their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll passengers and crew remain in quarantine and under close monitoring to ensure they receive care if needed,\u201d Ghebreyesus wrote Sunday in a X post<\/a>. \u201cThe situation is stable for now. We continue to remain vigilant and in close contact with all relevant governments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A passenger of the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, is disinfected on the tarmac at Tenerife Sud airport in the Spanish Canary Islands earlier this month. The world\u2019s top health leader says that the outbreak is \u2018stable for now\u2019 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

The strain of virus that spread on the ship is the Andes virus, the only known hantavirus strain to pass between humans.<\/p>\n

After all Americans were returned to the U.S., Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said that he had signed a declaration to \u201csupport the development and deployment of medical countermeasures related to Andes virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action helps remove barriers to research and response efforts while we continue monitoring the recent outbreak linked to the South Atlantic cruise ship,\u201d he wrote in his own X post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, risk to the general public remains low, Dr. David Fitter, the incident manager for response to the virus at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no hantavirus cases among the returned to U.S. passengers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fitter told reporters that the majority of the 18 quarantined passengers would stay at the University of Nebraska through the end of the month. Two others are staying at Emory Hospital in Georgia.<\/p>\n

While some passengers say they\u2019re trying to make the best of the cards they\u2019ve been dealt in quarantine, others have voiced their frustration at not being allowed to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are requiring us to remain in a locked facility and threatening us,\u201d Angela Perryman, 47, told The New York Times<\/a>, \u201cand denying us the right to home quarantine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perryman received a federal order requiring her to stay in Nebraska, the paper reported. She lives in Ecuador but has a home in Florida<\/a>, according to NPR.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear whether the passengers will be allowed to leave the center before the end of the full 42-day quarantine period. But it may take up to 42 days for hantavirus symptoms to appear after exposure, the CDC notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A person wearing protective equipment throws a bag of waste next to the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands last Monday. The ship is being disinfected (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Passengers\u2019 cases will be evaluated individually, Dr. Michael Wadman, the medical director of Nebraska\u2019s national quarantine unit, told The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason for the strict restrictions is that scientists don\u2019t yet fully understand how Andes virus is able to pass from person to person, Dr. Carlos del Rio, the International Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, explained in a Friday statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence suggests transmission requires close or prolonged contact, but there have been outbreaks in which people with relatively limited exposure also became infected. Fortunately, these outbreaks have remained small and relatively contained,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Exposure to the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents causes initial infection. Early symptoms of Andes virus are flu-like, but can lead to trouble breathing and fluid in the lungs.<\/p>\n

The mortality rate can reach up to 50 percent, depending on access to care.<\/p>\n

Still, hantavirus cases are rare in the U.S., typically occurring in rural areas of the Southwest. Hantavirus also does not spread as easily as Covid, del Rio noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHantavirus is very difficult to transmit from person to person, which fundamentally limits its pandemic potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The threat of deadly hantavirus is \u201cstable for now,\u201d World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[316812,64,63,1164,338544,338545,321411,137,315583,87017,318981,18558],"class_list":["post-694154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-andes-virus","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cruise-ship","tag-david-fitter","tag-deadly-hantavirus","tag-hantavirus-cases","tag-health","tag-hondius","tag-quarantine","tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}