CDC says threat of widespread outbreak of hantavirus remains low : NPR
Members of the press report an expected pick-up point for passengers of the MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla on May 9, 2026 in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that the agency has extensive experience with the Andean strain of hantavirus, providing assurance to the American public that there is a low risk of a widespread outbreak.
Remarks from CDC officials make headlines about virus – which broke out aboard a cruise ship last month – have raised fears of a COVID-type pandemic.
Officials speaking to reporters on Saturday stressed that transmission of the virus since person to person was rare and the risk to the American public remains “extremely low.”
Hantavirus is usually contracted when humans come into contact with rodent urine, saliva, or droppings.
However, the Andean strain of the virus – which is currently being monitored on board the MV Honius cruise ship – can, in rare cases, be transmitted from person to person.
Three people from the cruise – a Dutch couple and a German woman – died from the virus.
The Dutch couple are believed to have come into contact with the hantavirus before boarding the ship, during a bird-watching excursion to an Argentinian landfill.
More than two dozen American passengers were on the ship. Seven have already returned to the United States, but 17 others remain on board, approaching Spain’s Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.
Officials said the seven passengers returning to the United States were monitored at their homes and did not at any time exhibit symptoms related to the virus.
The remaining 17 will ultimately be brought back into the country and stationed inside the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where they will also be monitored.
CDC officials stressed that the group’s time in the unit would not constitute a quarantine, as has been the case previously. reported by CNN.
