Hantavirus outbreak: Cruise ship evacuates amid concerns for US passengers
A deadly hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship has prompted a global health operation. Three passengers have died, and 150 are evacuating to the Canary Islands, with U.S. states monitoring 17 American returnees. The WHO clarifies low human-to-human spread for the Andes virus strain, unlike COVID-19, and the CDC classifies this as a Level 3 emergency.
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17 Americans will be among the 150 people evacuated from the M/V Hondius cruise ship after an outbreak of a strain of Hantavirus as the World Health Organization’s head tells the public that the trending virus “is not another COVID-19.”
The cruise ship, which will anchor off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, will be followed shortly after by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a lengthy Saturday morning message posted to X, Ghebreyesus assured the globe that the risk Hantavirus poses to public health remains low.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Ghebreyesus wrote.
“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he continued.
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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, speaks during an event. (Lian Yi/Xinhua)
Ghebreyesus claimed he would be personally visiting Tenerife, the Canary isle where passengers will arrive after evacuating the cruise ship.
“I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion,” he wrote.
Health workers disembark from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship off Cape Verde on May 4, 2026, after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato/AP)
“Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance. As I have said many times: viruses do not care about politics, and they do not respect borders. The best immunity any of us has is solidarity,” the WHO head continued.
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Despite his assurances, however, Dr. Tedros also warned the public to stay vigilant against the virus which has already claimed three lives on the cruise ship.
“The virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of hantavirus. It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families,” he wrote, though again reiterated that public health risk was low.
The cruise ship MV Hondius is stationary off the port of Praia, Cape Verde, on May 3, 2026, amid an outbreak of severe acute respiratory illness that has caused two deaths and left a third patient in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa. The patient tested positive for hantavirus, according to South African health officials. (AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. government is planning on further evacuating the American passengers to a military base in Nebraska for quarantine and monitoring, Digital previously reported.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the outbreak personally, telling reporters Friday, “We have very good people looking at it. It seems to be okay. They know the virus very well. They’ve worked with it for a long time. They know it very well. Not easy to pass on. So we hope that’s true.”
“Our American passengers, they’re gonna be taken to Nebraska, to a center where they will be monitored. They will be isolated, they’ll check their vital signs, their temperature, their oxygen level, their blood pressure,” Dr. Janet Nesheiwat, a former Trump-tapped nominee for Surgeon General, told on Saturday.
“If they start to develop any symptoms, we can intervene early. Because as it is right now, there’s no specific treatment for this virus other than supportive care, like oxygen, fluids, hydration, analgesics,” she said.
Digital contacted the WHO and the CDC for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Digital’s Brittany Miller contributed to this report.
