Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship has rattled the nation and reignited fears of a new global health scare as passengers were dispersed across multiple countries, including the United States.
As of Wednesday, the World Health Organization had reported 11 cases linked to the outbreak, including eight confirmed deaths. The CDC announced Thursday that 41 people are being monitored for hantavirus in the United States, but there are no confirmed cases locally.
Hantavirus-specific treatments are still years away: moderna It rose about 12% on Friday after confirmation that it is conducting early research into a potential vaccine to protect against hantavirus.
But as the number of infections and public concerns rise, health experts aim to quell fears of a new pandemic. Their message is that this is not another Covid-19.
Unlike coronaviruses, measles, and influenza, the Andean strain of hantavirus involved in this outbreak does not spread easily among people, and the risk of widespread community spread is low. Experts say the long incubation period of hantavirus means more cases could emerge in the coming weeks.
Still, “we don’t expect to see a large number of cases, and especially now that containment measures are in place, the cases are likely to be limited to passengers who were infected on the ship,” Dr. Nicole Iovine, the hospital’s chief epidemiologist and an infectious disease physician at the University of Florida, said in an interview.
The crew of Hondius arrived at Eindhoven Airport in the evening in two aircraft, including a German crew.
Christoph Reichwein | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
But for other experts, the outbreak raises broader concerns about how well the U.S. can respond to future infectious disease threats, especially in the wake of deep cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration’s move last year to withdraw from the WHO.
While experts say the CDC appears to have the hantavirus outbreak under control, some warn that the situation has exposed cracks in the nation’s public health infrastructure and could have greater consequences in the face of more contagious pathogens.
“We don’t expect there to be a significant risk to the American public, but if this is a stress test, we’re failing it,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown University. “Imagine if this was actually a highly contagious substance.”
Here’s what you need to know about the current status of the hantavirus outbreak and what it says about the U.S.’s ability to contain the disease.
Low risk to the general public
WHO public health experts say the risk of the general population becoming infected with this hantavirus remains low. The main reason for this is that hantaviruses do not spread as easily as other viruses, such as the new coronavirus.
Hantaviruses are primarily transmitted to humans through contact with infected wild rodents, especially through inhalation of airborne particles in their urine, feces, or saliva. Cases of hantavirus infections are rare in the United States, with 890 cases reported from 1993 to 2023, most in western states, according to CDC data.
The Andean strain of the virus identified in this outbreak and discovered in South America is the only hantavirus that can be transmitted from person to person. Still, cases of human-to-human transmission are rare, so the medical community is taking cues from past outbreaks.
An illustration of a hantavirus testing concept with a cotton swab and a laboratory tube containing a hantavirus label, taken in front of public domain hantavirus-related microscopic images published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Paris, France, on May 8, 2026.
Joan Luis Burcao | AFP | Getty Images
Dr. Kari Devink of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said the Andes strain typically spreads through “close and usually prolonged contact” with infected people who are showing symptoms.
Devink said this is different from the new coronavirus, which “spreads fairly efficiently without very long exposures.” Unlike respiratory viruses such as coronavirus, influenza, and measles, hantaviruses are not considered airborne because they cannot linger in the air and infect others.
But cruise ships like the MV Hondius are thought to be ideal environments for disease transmission because they bring together a wide variety of people and stay in close quarters for days or even weeks.
“Cruise ships are one of the biggest threats to public health. Cruise ships are floating petri dishes isolated in the water,” said Dr. Tyler Evans, CEO of the public health organization Wellness Equity Alliance and former chief medical officer of New York City’s coronavirus response.
WHO investigators believe the outbreak was caused by a Dutch couple on board the cruise ship MV Hondius who later died from the infection.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on May 7 that the couple had gone on a bird-watching trip to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship. He said the couple’s birding trips included visits to areas where “a type of rat known to carry hantavirus” lives.
Hantaviruses have an incubation period of one to six weeks after infection, which means more cases are likely to occur, Devink said. But he added that “this situation should be contained fairly quickly” as people who have been in contact with the infected person are being monitored for symptoms in specialized facilities.
Concerned about US response
Given the nature of hantaviruses, the outbreak is likely under control in the United States. But some health experts expressed concern that the CDC under President Donald Trump did not take a stronger response, raising broader concerns about whether the U.S. is prepared for future, more contagious global health threats.
“CDC has always been on the front lines of global health emergencies, from SARS-CoV-2 to Ebola to Zika,” Georgetown’s Gostin said. “And the CDC is inactive on this issue. Their response is disorganized and slow.”
For decades, the CDC has built a reputation as the world’s premier public health agency, working quickly with the WHO and foreign governments during outbreaks. But experts say the agency is weakened by significant staff cuts, leadership vacancies and the Trump administration’s decision to sever ties with the WHO.
President Trump cut the CDC’s workforce by about 10% in early 2025, reducing the number of epidemiologists and scientific staff responsible for working in the field and coordinating the response across the government. Currently, there is no permanent CDC director or U.S. Surgeon General who plays a key role in responding to disease threats.
“They don’t have the right leadership at the CDC,” Evans said. “They’re like being on a ship without a captain, scrambling a little bit and hoping for the best. There are serious concerns about this.”
Gostin said the CDC was lagging behind the WHO and European health authorities and said the agency escalated its actions “one week after the international community began rallying against a potential global health crisis.” The outbreak was first reported to the WHO on May 2, and the agency quickly took a number of steps, including sending experts to the ship.
The CDC issued its first official statement on the outbreak on May 6, and issued its first official health alert to U.S. doctors on May 8, warning of the possibility of imported cases. The agency confirmed it sent a team to Spain’s Canary Islands on May 7 as part of plans to evacuate U.S. passengers from the ship, and the ship arrived two days later, sending a second group to Nebraska.
The CDC is currently working with the WHO, but experts say the Trump administration’s decision to sever ties with the international health organization is detrimental to the U.S.’s ability to respond to future outbreaks. For example, the United States no longer has direct and automatic access to real-time information from WHO member states about emerging health threats.
Neil Mania, a professor of public health at Northeastern University, said the response to hantavirus is in stark contrast to 2020, when the CDC worked closely with international partners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s what we need to do to effectively respond to this type of outbreak, and that’s where the system is really broken,” Mania said.
He added: “Future outbreaks are likely and we need to restore our country’s expertise and resources to respond.” “This should be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of our preparedness and ability to keep this country safe.”
