First Confirmed Case of Hantavirus Among Evacuees from Cruise Ship
One of the 17 Americans evacuated from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the disease, while another is experiencing mild symptoms. This information was confirmed by US officials on Sunday night. The first case among those being evacuated this weekend from the luxury MV Hondius marks a significant development in the ongoing health crisis.
At least six Americans related to the cruise are currently under monitoring, but this is the first confirmed case among the evacuees. All the US citizens, along with one British national who resides in America, are being transported back to the United States. The two passengers showing symptoms are traveling in biocontainment units aboard the aircraft, as reported by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The second symptomatic passenger has not yet been confirmed as having the virus. The plane is expected to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday. According to an HHS spokesman, “One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.”
The Americans will first be taken to the University of Nebraska, which houses a federally funded quarantine facility. There, they will be assessed to determine if they have been in close contact with any symptomatic individuals and their risk levels for spreading the virus. Nebraska Medicine added that the person who tested positive will undergo additional testing upon arrival.
Each of the 17 Americans will receive clinical assessments and care based on their individual conditions. Kayla Thomas, a spokesman for the Nebraska Medical Center, explained, “One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms.”
Understanding Hantaviruses
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses usually spread by rodents, but in rare cases, they can be transmitted from person to person. Health authorities have stated that the risk of the virus spreading is low.
According to a World Health Organization update from Friday, eight people no longer on the MV Hondius have fallen ill, with six of them confirmed to have contracted the virus. A Dutch couple and a German national have died. The Andes strain of hantavirus, identified in the ship’s outbreak, can cause severe lung illness that can be fatal in up to 50% of cases, according to the WHO.
International Response to the Outbreak
Spain and France have evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which is anchored near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, and Ireland are also flying home nationals who were on the ship.
So far, there have been eight cases of hantavirus linked to the outbreak that began on MV Hondius, which started its journey in Ushuaia, Argentina, last month. Five infections have been confirmed, three are suspected, and three people have died already, with many fearing that the disease may become a deadly outbreak.
The US is one of several countries that came to save the nearly 140 passengers and crew members trapped on board the ill-fated vessel. Evacuations for Americans on board began Sunday evening local time, in conjunction with the Spanish government, after MV Hondius docked in Tenerife.
From the ship, all of the passengers were escorted to shore by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks. Spanish passengers were the first to leave, flown to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. Hours later, a plane that evacuated American passengers took off from the airport for Omaha.
The State Department told CBS News the US plane was chartered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the DHSS. The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was expected to last until Monday.
Passengers were tested for hantavirus and disembarked country by country, before boarding smaller boats in groups of five to head to shore for the plane ride. The Americans will land at the Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, before going to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s new state-of-the-art biocontainment unit.
The CDC will also be sending a team to the university for support. All of the travelers will be quarantined on their own for the time being, according to Michael Wadman, medical director of the university’s National Quarantine Unit. “Each individual will have their own room,” Wadman said, while adding that there is no standard quarantine period set for those being brought in.
The unit, which opened in 2019, comes from a $20 million HSS grant, as reported by ABC News. The dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha was previously used to treat Ebola patients and some of the first COVID-19 patients. Nebraska Medicine is one of a handful of hospitals in the US with specialized treatment units for people with highly dangerous infectious diseases.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said. Images of hazmat-suited medical workers airlifting gravely ill passengers from the MV Hondius earlier this week were hauntingly reminiscent of the darkest days of the Covid pandemic.
Meanwhile, passengers who previously left the stricken vessel are now under home quarantine and being closely monitored, including Americans in six states—Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia.
In the latest worrying twist, a Spanish woman who was on the same flight as a passenger who later died from the disease has reportedly been hospitalized with a suspected infection. She was said to have been “two rows behind the person who died” and had “only brief contact.” No further details have been released.
Those most at risk of severe illness are believed to include older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and anyone exposed to a high dose of the virus—for example, through prolonged exposure to contaminated rodent droppings or dust. In the US, hantavirus remains extremely rare.
The CDC says 890 cases were reported between 1993 and the end of 2023—an average of about 30 cases a year. Worldwide, however, the WHO estimates there are between 10,000 and more than 100,000 infections annually, with the largest burden in Asia and Europe.
However, experts say the strain involved in the cruise ship outbreak is not significantly different from other Andes virus outbreaks and shows no signs of mutation. The World Health Organization considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.
On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane that was briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’s potential transmissibility.
The outbreak has inevitably raised alarm—not least because hantavirus is little known outside medical circles, has no specific cure, and can in some cases trigger catastrophic lung failure within days.
Symptoms usually begin between one and eight weeks after exposure. They advise anyone who develops symptoms after a possible hantavirus exposure to seek medical attention promptly.
Warning signs include fever, muscle aches, breathing difficulties, chest tightness, severe weakness, or symptoms developing after known exposure to rodents or an infected person. In those circumstances, doctors say people should seek urgent medical advice and inform healthcare providers about any possible hantavirus exposure.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the virus is “very much, we hope, under control.” “We have a lot of people, a lot of great people, studying it,” Trump added. “It should be fine, we hope.”
