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In this article, Melanie discusses the recent Hantavirus outbreak and what health officials are saying.
The Hantavirus
The Hantavirus
By: Melanie Campbell
By: Melanie Campbell
The MV Hondius, a Dutch expedition cruise ship, was the center of a Hantavirus outbreak as it departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on Apr. 1, 2026, and traveled through Antarctica, the South Atlantic islands, Cape Verde, and finally docked in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The Hantavirus is a rare but potentially deadly virus spread primarily by rodents, causing severe respiratory or kidney disease in humans.
The Andes virus, a strain of Hantavirus seen in the cruise ship outbreak, can have an incubation period of up to eight weeks and a mortality rate of up to 50%, according to the World Health Organization. Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause serious illness or death. Primarily spread by rodents, the Andes virus is the only known strain that can spread person-to-person, according to the CDC. The Hantavirus can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a severe and deadly disease that affects the lungs. Early symptoms can include fatigue, fever, and muscle aches. Around half of all HPS patients also experience headaches, dizziness, chills, and abdominal problems. Around 4 to 10 days after the initial phase of the illness, the late symptoms may appear, including coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Around 38 percent of people who develop respiratory symptoms may die from the disease.
Picture of Hantavirus. Image from New York Presbysterian Hospital.
On May 2, 2026, the World Health Organization received information from the IHR NFP regarding an outbreak of this illness that included two deaths and one critically ill passenger aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. As of May 13, passengers were removed from the ship in Spain’s Canary Islands and flown home under quarantine or medical monitoring. The ship then headed to the Netherlands for deep cleaning and examination, including a full rodent inspection and extermination effort, as well as an inspection of the vessel’s cabins and ventilation systems for contamination. According to [NEWSNATION], this vessel was used for expedition cruising, with a total count of around 175,114 guests and 61 crew members, according to The New York Times. As of May 13, a total of 11 cases have been reported, according to the WHO. The countries that have reported Hantavirus cases include Argentina, Chile, the USA, China, Russia, Finland, and Germany. The 18 Americans that were on board are now being monitored, with most evacuees at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska, and two others were sent to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Picture of Hantavirus-carrying rodent. Image from Doherty Institute.
The Hantavirus is increasingly concerning for many people, and health officials are keeping a close eye on the outbreak. So does this mean that we will have to experience another lockdown so shortly after our last one? Well, according to Al Jazeera, the director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, “The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low” in a statement on May 9. The Hantavirus is primarily spread through rat feces, urine, and saliva. The Andes strain is the only strain of this virus shown to spread person-to-person. While human-to-human transmission events may occur, they require specific circumstances and long exposure time. Unlike the Coronavirus, the Hantavirus is extremely rare; human-to-human transmission is limited, and it often kills its host before it can be spread at the same level.
Officials say that the Hantavirus is unlikely to become the next pandemic. The Hantavirus only has one strain that spreads person-to-person, and it only spreads through prolonged contact. The word outbreak may scare us after the experiences of 2020, but we are not realistically going to experience a global pandemic at the same scale as a result of this virus.
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