{"id":432000,"date":"2026-05-08T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/432000\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:30:20","slug":"how-worried-should-we-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/432000\/","title":{"rendered":"How Worried Should We Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor the past several days, the world has watched a hantavirus<\/a> outbreak unfold on a cruise<\/a> ship in the Atlantic Ocean now carrying roughly 100 passengers. So far, the rare but deadly virus has left five people sick and three dead, according to the World Health<\/a> Organization (WHO). Of those cases, five are confirmed to be hantavirus \u2014\u00a0including at least one of the deceased\u00a0\u2014 and three are suspected.<\/p>\n

\n\tThanks to the chaotic release of information from the WHO, cruise ship company (Oceanwide Expeditions), and a travel influencer<\/a> (who partnered with the company), it\u2019s been difficult to stay on top of the situation and what\u2019s accurate. Beyond that, Trump administration policies \u2014 like pulling out of the WHO \u2014 are keeping the U.S. out of the loop during the ongoing global investigation into the outbreak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what exactly is going on onboard the ship? How concerned should we be about the outbreak? And what do rodents have to do with it? Well, strap in: it\u2019s time to temporarily become experts in another virus.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat actually happened on the cruise?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MV Hondius, a polar explorer vessel registered in the Netherlands, departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 with 114 guests plus the crew on board with plans to visit Antarctica and remote islands in the South Atlantic on a weekslong cruise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut six days into the voyage, a 70-year-old male passenger fell ill<\/a> with fever, headache, and diarrhea. He died on April 11. It took nearly two weeks for the ship to make its way<\/a> through the South Atlantic to the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory, which was \u201cthe first possible location where this passenger could be disembarked for repatriation,\u201d a rep for the company told Rolling Stone. When it docked on April 24, the deceased\u2019s body was removed from the ship. His wife also disembarked, immediately experienced gastrointestinal symptoms, and died two days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the couple, 28 guests also left the cruise at Saint Helena, and made their way home to 12 countries: Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis. Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, T\u00fcrkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tAlso on April 24, an adult male passenger started showing signs of pneumonia. He was medically evacuated to South Africa on April 27, where he is currently hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit. On May 2, testing confirmed that he had a hantavirus infection. Another passenger on board the MV Hondius died that day, though the cause of their death appeared to be pneumonia.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn May 4, the passengers who disembarked in Saint Helena received an email from Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch cruise company operating the ship, notifying them that they had been exposed to hantavirus, according to the company representative. But by this point, they had already flown to destinations around the world, potentially bringing the virus with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen someone contracts a hantavirus infection, the symptoms don\u2019t show up for anywhere from one week and two months. This means passengers might not have any symptoms for several weeks, says Kirsten Lyke, MD<\/a>, an infectious disease<\/a> specialist and professor of medicine at University of Maryland School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director-general of the WHO, it\u2019s possible that more cases of hantavirus tied to the cruise ship will be reported, but the outbreak is not cause for alarm. \u201cWhile this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low,\u201d he said at a press conference on Thursday. \u201cOur priorities are to ensure the affected patients receive care, that the remaining passengers on the ship are kept safe and treated with dignity, and to prevent any further spread of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tAt this point, it\u2019s unclear exactly how hantavirus made it onboard the MV Hondius. \u201cThis is going to take a little bit of detective work,\u201d Lyke tells Rolling Stone. \u201cThe going hypothesis right now is that the [first identified] case, which is a husband and wife, were in Argentina and may have been exposed during a hike or other tourist activity and then brought [hantavirus] onto the ship, where it could then spread person to person.\u201d (Argentina has the highest incidence<\/a> of hantavirus in Latin America.) The other possibility is that the virus was spread through mice on the ship, she says, as people can contract it after coming in contact with rodent urine, feces, or saliva.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat is hantavirus?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHantavirus is typically spread from rodents to people, but the particular strain that\u2019s infecting those on the cruise, according to the WHO <\/a>\u2014 the Andes strain<\/a> \u2014 is the only kind that can also be transmitted from person to person.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarly on in a hantavirus infection, someone will likely experience mild flu-like symptoms, followed by respiratory issues, like shortness of breath. \u201cThey may not be coughing up stuff, but gradually, they\u2019ll have a harder and harder time breathing, and then that can lead to shock and affect other organs,\u201d Lyke says. When people die from a hantavirus infection, it\u2019s typically because of respiratory failure and not being able to get enough oxygen, she explains.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe suspects that the passengers and crew of the MV Hondius will have to quarantine on the ship until it has been eight weeks since active transmission, or the last person was removed from the ship that was ill. Ann Lindstrand, the WHO\u2019s representative in Cape Verde,\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0that a possible quarantine could last as long as two months, adding, \u201ceight weeks in a horribly long time to be in quarantine.\u201d Oceanwide Expeditions isn\u2019t offering any details on how long passengers\u2019 quarantine might last. \u201cWe are unable to confirm the details of onward travel for guests at this stage,\u201d the company said in a\u00a0press release<\/a>. On Friday, the AP reported that the ship was on its way to the Canary Islands, where it will \u201carrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,\u201d according to Virginia Barcones, Spain\u2019s head of emergency services. <\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently, there is no treatment for hantavirus \u2014 just supportive care. \u201cThere\u2019s been some experimental attempts to use different antivirals, but they haven\u2019t really panned out,\u201d Lyke says. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult to study these viruses, because you just don\u2019t see them that often, and you can\u2019t expose people to these types of viruses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHantavirus has a very high mortality rate\u00a0\u2014 up to 50 percent in the America, according to the WHO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow will the United States\u2019 withdrawal from the WHO impact the outbreak?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe United States\u2019 withdrawal from the WHO, which took effect in January, has put American public health officials at a disadvantage, says David Larsen, PhD<\/a>, professor and chair of the public health department at Syracuse University. It has meant that hantavirus experts from the CDC weren\u2019t among the first people involved in the outbreak investigation. \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal to not be in the loop on infectious disease outbreaks,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone. \u201cBeing involved in the outbreak response is very different from receiving information from the WHO that they send to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPulling out of the WHO also means that the U.S. no longer has access<\/a> to the organization\u2019s surveillance databases.<\/p>\n

\n\tTypically, it takes some time for the first information from an outbreak investigation to be released, as public relations teams and various governments have to clear it first. Those involved in an investigation get that information right away and can share it more quickly with public health officials in their country. \u201cIt\u2019s not good for Americans that there is an outbreak of an infectious disease that we\u2019re not boots-on-the-ground going to because it makes us less safe,\u201d Larsen says.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaking good on his promise<\/a> to \u201cgive infectious disease a break,\u201d in April 2025, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slashed the budget<\/a> for the CDC\u2019s Vessel Sanitation Program<\/a> (VSP), which investigates outbreaks, conducts health inspections on cruise ships, and trains staff on public health practices. As a result, all full-time VSP employees lost their jobs \u2014 despite the fact that taxpayer dollars don\u2019t fund the program.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis leaves American cruise ships vulnerable if there were to be a similar outbreak on a vessel from the U.S., Larsen says. \u201cYou can\u2019t gut an agency then expect it to do a job,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe CDC has a clear mission: to protect the American people from infectious disease threats. A huge component of that mission is to understand where the infectious disease threats are and then be able to respond to those.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother job of the VSP was cooperating and coordinating with scientists in other parts of the world. \u201cOur relationships with other countries are absolutely not healthy,\u201d Larsen says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the same level of cooperation and sharing, it makes us less secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis lack of oversight is also concerning because cruise ships are \u201cvulnerable locations,\u201d according to Larsen. \u201cIf we can\u2019t go on a cruise because we\u2019re worried about infectious disease outbreaks \u2014 because there\u2019s nobody there to support the inspection of these vessels and make sure everything\u2019s working fine \u2014 that\u2019s a lack of freedom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\t\tDo we need to worry about hantavirus?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPublic health officials in the U.S. are currently monitoring passengers who returned from the cruise on April 24 located in five states<\/a>: Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and California. At this point, none are showing signs of the hantavirus, according to the respective authorities.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile hantavirus isn\u2019t as contagious as measles, for example, Lyke says that it\u2019s possible for it to spread in a limited way. \u201cWe don\u2019t know a lot about exposure,\u201d she says. \u201cPresumably, it\u2019s spread by respiratory secretions \u2014 being in a room with someone for a period of time could be enough. I think the closer and longer the contact, the more likely that one could be exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn average, those infected with Andes virus typically infect fewer than one other person<\/a>. In contrast, one person infected with SARS-CoV-2, could, on average, infect 15 to 20 others.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeparate from this outbreak, there is also a strain of hantavirus in the United States known as the Sin Nombre virus<\/a>, which is found in the Four Corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). This is the strain that killed Gene Hackman\u2019s wife, Betsy Arakawa<\/a>, in February 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the United States, people contract hantavirus most frequently when they\u2019re hiking in New Mexico and staying in a log cabin, Lyke says. \u201cWe\u2019re always telling people to be super careful,\u201d she notes. \u201cAerate the cabin or any other closed area with rodents. You also might want to wear a mask and sweep it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tOverall, though, hantavirus is \u201cvery uncommon,\u201d according to Lyke. From 1993 to 2023, there were 890 reported cases<\/a> of hantavirus in the United States. \u201cThis is one of those kind of one-offs where it\u2019s a little bit sensational, it\u2019s a little unusual, and I don\u2019t think people necessarily need to worry at all,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong the same lines, WHO officials are stressing that there is no reason to panic. \u201cI want to be unequivocal here: this is not SARS-CoV-2,\u201d Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, acting director of the WHO\u2019s department of epidemic and pandemic management said at the press conference. \u201cThis is not the start of a Covid pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship. There\u2019s a confined area. We have five confirmed cases so far. This is not the same situation we were in six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n