Monitoring of Americans Returning from Hantavirus-Infected Cruise Ship
At least six Americans across five states who returned home from a hantavirus-infected cruise ship are currently being monitored for the potentially deadly disease. These tourists, originating from three different U.S. states, were aboard the MV Hondius when the outbreak occurred last month. Three passengers on board the ship have since died, while five others were sickened after showing signs of hantavirus, a family of rare viruses spread by rodents.
According to The New York Times, none of those being monitored in the United States have shown any symptoms of the illness. On Thursday, President Donald Trump stated that the virus is “very much, we hope, under control.” When asked whether Americans should be concerned about the virus spreading, Trump replied, “I hope not. We’ll do the best we can.”
State-Level Monitoring Efforts
The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed it is monitoring two residents who are currently in good health and show no signs of infection. The department added that it is following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Similarly, the California Department of Public Health said it was notified that residents had been onboard the ship, but officials did not specify how many residents they were monitoring. Robert Barsanti, a spokesman for the department, told The New York Times, “There is no information that the California residents are ill or infected.” He added that the risk to public health in California is low.
The Arizona Department of Health Services also reported that it received notification that a resident was a passenger on the cruise, though a spokeswoman noted that the “individual is not symptomatic and is being monitored.”
Two Texans and one Virginian are also being monitored for the deadly virus after they were identified as passengers aboard the MV Hondius when the outbreak started last month, but returned to the US before it was identified. Both passengers from Texas have no symptoms and did not have contact with anyone unwell, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. They have agreed to monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks.
Understanding Hantavirus Transmission
Hantavirus symptoms typically appear between one and eight weeks after exposure. According to Texas authorities, contracting the hantavirus typically requires “close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease.” It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where someone without symptoms spread it to someone else.
As more Americans are identified as passengers aboard the ill-fated ship, the CDC said it is monitoring the situation. “Our top priority remains the health and safety of all US passengers,” the agency stated in a release on Wednesday. The CDC emphasized that the risk to the American public is extremely low and urged all Americans aboard the ship to follow the guidance of health officials.
International Response
Elsewhere in North America, Canadian authorities confirmed that three individuals were being monitored. Two passengers returned home from the vessel before the outbreak was identified, while the third was “on the same flight and may have come into contact with a symptomatic individual.” However, this individual was not considered a high-risk close contact by the World Health Organization (WHO). All three Canadians—two in Ontario and one in Quebec—were asymptomatic and had “received guidance to self-isolate.”
The MV Hondius Voyage and Outbreak Timeline
The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise, departed April 1 from Argentina for Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic. The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the Dutch couple contracted hantavirus during a bird-watching outing at a garbage dump in Ushuaia, Argentina—where the MV Hondius departed from on April 1.
A 70-year-old Dutch man was the first person to die on April 11 after experiencing days of severe illness, followed by his wife two days later. Six Americans then disembarked the MV Hondius on April 24 on the island of St Helena, 13 days after the first death on board, according to operator Oceanwide Expeditions.
Initial Response and Clarification
The first hantavirus case onboard the vessel was not confirmed by authorities until May 2. In a video shared online, the ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, initially told passengers that the death was due to “natural causes.” “Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe,” Dobrogowski said. “And also whatever health issues he was struggling with, I’m told by the doctor, were not infectious, so the ship is safe when it comes to that. The ship is safe. This gentleman, unfortunately, succumbed to natural causes. And like I say, we do what we can in order to continue in a safe and dignified way.”
The Dutch man’s wife also disembarked, flew to South Africa a day later, and died there. On Thursday, the Netherlands’ health ministry said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by the woman was showing symptoms of hantavirus. She is due to be tested in an isolation ward at a hospital in Amsterdam. If positive, the flight attendant could become the first known person not on the cruise ship to become infected.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines also said on Wednesday that a Dutch woman who died after contracting the virus was “briefly” on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam but was removed from the plane before takeoff.
Investigating the Source of the Outbreak
Two Argentine officials investigating the hantavirus outbreak believe it may have been sparked after the Dutch couple visited a landfill where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the virus. In the months before the cruise, the Dutch couple was said to have traveled extensively through southern Argentina and Chile, and also visited Uruguay.
On Wednesday, the Argentine government released a reconstruction of the couple’s travel itinerary. According to authorities, the Dutch couple arrived in Argentina on November 27, 2025. They then traveled by car during 40 days to cross into Chile on January 7 of this year. After crossing the border, they spent 24 more days in the car. There were also recorded visits to Neuquén, Argentina, on January 31, as well as another visit to Chile—location unspecified—about 12 days later. They then went from Chile back to Mendoza, in Argentina, where they took another 20-day car trip to Misiones in the northeastern part of the country. From there, they crossed into Uruguay on March 13. The Dutch couple finally returned to Argentina on March 27 to set off on the cruise ship from Ushuaia on April 1.
Global Collaboration to Contain the Spread
The World Health Organization said on social media it is now “working with relevant countries to support international contact tracing, to ensure that those potentially exposed are monitored and that any further disease spread is limited.”
