Two Texans were on board cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak

Two Texas residents were passengers on the cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak, according to federal health authorities, and both left the ship and returned to the U.S. before the outbreak was identified.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Texas health authorities about the two residents, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced Thursday.

According to the announcement, public health workers have been in touch with both Texas residents, who were not publicly identified. The two residents have reported they do not have symptoms and did not come into contact with anyone on the ship who had symptoms.

The Texas residents, according to the announcement, have agreed to alert health authorities if they develop symptoms.

Hantavirus typically spreads through contact with rodent droppings. The specific strain of hantavirus found on board the MV Hondius — a Dutch cruise ship that left Argentina in early April — can pass from human to human, but only in limited and specific circumstances.

In order to spread from one person to another, the state health announcement said, the two people would have to be in “close, prolonged contact” while one person was “actively sick with the disease.” The virus, even the strain that can pass from person to person, has not been known to spread through casual contact such as hand shaking or briefly being in the same area as a person who is sick, the state health announcement said.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that more than two dozen people disembarked the MV Hondius on April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board.

The hantavirus poses a low risk to the wider public, according to the World Health Organization, because of how difficult it is to spread. Still, health authorities on four continents are working to contact trace for the passengers who left the ship after the outbreak, according to the AP.

The World Health Organization has posted more information, including details on the confirmed and suspected hantavirus cases, on its website.