How Does Hantavirus Spread? What You Need to Know About the Atlantic Cruise Ship Outbreak

[Narrator] National and global health authorities

are working to contain a deadly outbreak of Hantavirus

on onboard an Atlantic cruise ship.

As of May 6th and time of recording,

there are currently eight cases and three deaths

all connected to the MV Hondius,

which departed Argentina at the start of April

with 147 people on board

and a final port of call in Cape Verde.

The ship is currently heading towards the Canary Islands,

but the regional head of government has said

the ship will not be allowed to dock

due to a lack of information about the risk

to the general population.

The islands are an autonomous community of Spain,

but the ultimate decision

belongs to the central government in Madrid.

The death of a Dutch man was the first fatality on April 11,

followed by his wife on April 24th in South Africa

after disembarking, alongside his body

and a German national on board on May 2nd.

There are five other cases, including a man

who had been traveling on the ship

who presented to a hospital in Zurich.

The World Health Organization

said it is assisting Swiss authorities

in tracing anyone who might have come into contact

with the man.

Infection of Hantavirus is normally through contact

with infected rodents or their urine droppings or saliva.

Person to person transmission is uncommon,

but has been reported in previous outbreaks

of the specific Andes species of virus,

which has now been confirmed as present

in the current outbreak.

Hantavirus is characterized by headache,

dizziness, chills, fever, and gastrointestinal problems.

Infections are relatively uncommon

with several hundred cases reported in the Americas in 2025.

But the virus has a high fatality rate

and there is no specific treatment of vaccine available.

The Director General of the World Health Organization,

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says at this stage,

the overall public health risk remains low.