EU agency says all passengers on hantavirus-hit cruise ship are high-risk contacts

High-risk contact in this case means monitoring, isolation and, for some passengers, medical evacuation. On the MV Hondius, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said all passengers should be treated as high-risk contacts as the cruise ship sailed toward Tenerife, a precaution built for a virus that spreads person-to-person through close, prolonged contact.

The outbreak has been tied to Andes hantavirus, the only hantavirus known to transmit between people. As of May 9, the ECDC said eight cases had been reported on the ship, six confirmed and two probable, with three deaths. The World Health Organization said illness began between April 6 and April 28 and included fever, gastrointestinal illness, rapidly worsening pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock.

The ship carried 147 people, including passengers and crew from 23 countries, and began its voyage in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1. The route took it through some of the most remote waters in the world, with stops at Antarctica, South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Cape Verde before the outbreak forced public-health intervention.

European officials have moved quickly to contain exposure. The ECDC sent an expert from the EU Health Task Force to the vessel and said precautions should include the medical evacuation of symptomatic passengers, crew and close contacts. The World Health Organization said the outbreak was being managed through coordinated international response, including case isolation, medical evacuation and laboratory investigations.

U.S. authorities said the risk to the American public remained extremely low and that no U.S. cases had been reported from the outbreak. The CDC said it was working with the U.S. State Department and other partners to repatriate Americans, with planned transport to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and then to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. CDC teams also went to the Canary Islands to help assess exposure risk, while another team was set to support the public-health response at Offutt.

The ship’s handling has become a stress test for cruise and expedition-ship disease protocols. Earlier reports said three passengers were evacuated on May 6, including German, Dutch and British nationals, among them a British crew member. By May 9, reports also described suspected related illnesses off the ship, including one in Spain after a passenger disembarked and another on a plane near an infected traveler. In a setting where Andes hantavirus depends on close contact, the line between a contained outbreak and a wider one has been drawn by speed, isolation and cross-border coordination.