Hantavirus outbreak aboard cruise ship nears end of transmission, CDC says risk low

Hantavirus is serious, but it is not a coronavirus-style pandemic threat. Scott Gottlieb said the cruise-ship cluster was nearing the end of its transmission window, and the CDC says the risk to the American public remains extremely low because Andes virus, the strain involved, does not spread broadly the way COVID-19 did.

The outbreak was first linked by the CDC and the World Health Organization on May 2 to the Dutch-flagged M/V Hondius, which had departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 with 147 people on board, including 86 passengers and 61 crew from 23 countries. The ship moved across the South Atlantic Ocean and stopped near Antarctica, South Georgia Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island before the illness cluster was identified.

By May 8, WHO had reported eight cases, six confirmed and two suspected, including three deaths. CBS News reported nine confirmed or suspected cases tied to the ship, also including three deaths. Gottlieb told Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that “we are nearing the end of the transmission period” for the passengers being repatriated, and said hantavirus is “not going to spread like a pandemic virus like COVID did.”

CDC says the disease is usually acquired through contact with rodents, especially exposure to urine, droppings or saliva. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to spread person to person, and even then it typically requires prolonged close contact. That is why health officials say broad spread in the United States is considered extremely unlikely, and why no U.S. Andes virus cases have been reported from this outbreak.

The response has centered on tracing passengers who already left the ship, including some Americans who disembarked before the outbreak was identified. CDC said state health departments are monitoring them, and that American passengers were planned for a medical repatriation flight to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, followed by transfer to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. CBS News reported that 17 Americans were aboard, six U.S. states were monitoring possible exposure tied to the ship or to flights, and the WHO said at least 12 countries were tracking people who had left the vessel.