US residents monitored for hantavirus after cruise outbreak. Updates

Captain of ship told passengers first death was due to 'natural causes'

Saman Shafiq and Thao Nguyen

After the first death on the MV Hondius in April, passengers had been told by the captain that the person had died due to "natural causes" and there was no risk to others onboard. Video recorded on April 12 aboard the ship captured Captain Jan Dobrogowski delivering the news to passengers, USA TODAY reported.

"Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe," Dobrogowski said, adding the ship was safe and that the passenger’s health issues were "not infectious."

Health officials confirmed weeks later that the passenger, along with two others linked to the voyage, died after contracting a rare and often deadly strain of hantavirus.

Ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement on May 7 that it was aware of the video. At the time, the Netherlands-based operator said it believed the case was isolated following a medical review.

"At the time of the first death on 11 April, the cause of death was unknown and there was no evidence of a virus or contagion on board m/v Hondius," Oceanwide Expeditions said. "This was established by the medical doctor on board and communicated in person by the captain to passengers and crew on 12 April."

The ship's medical team requested testing for "common pathogens" after a passenger was medevaced on April 27, according to the operator. That passenger was later confirmed to have hantavirus on May 4.

Argentina to test rodents at origin point of cruise ship

Thao Nguyen

Argentina's health ministry said in a statement that it will conduct rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia — where officials believe the hantavirus outbreak may have originated. Officials are also reconstructing the itinerary of the Dutch couple who traveled in Argentina and Chile and later showed symptoms of hantavirus on the cruise ship.

Hantaviruses are rodent-borne viruses that can infect people and cause illness. The strain identified on the ship is the Andes virus, which can be transmitted human-to-human and typically circulates in Argentina and Chile.

The MV Hondius set off from Argentina on April 1. The Argentinean government says it believes the Dutch husband and wife, who died on different dates in April, contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing at a landfill in Ushuaia before boarding the ship.

“Prior to boarding the ship, the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip, which included visits to sites where the species of rat that is known to carry Andes virus was present,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference on May 7. "WHO is working with health authorities in Argentina to understand the movements of the couple."

Contributing: Reuters

Trump says he was briefed on hantavirus

Thao Nguyen

President Donald Trump told reporters on May 7 that he had been briefed on hantavirus after an outbreak occurred aboard the MV Hondius, and that he hoped it was very much under control, according to Reuters. He also said, without elaborating, that a report on the virus was expected on May 8.

Multiple states and countries worldwide were tracking those who had disembarked the cruise ship before the virus was detected and anyone who has since been in close contact with them. Public health authorities in at least five U.S. states have reported the return of local residents who were aboard the ship, but no confirmed cases have been documented in the country.

Three people — a Dutch couple and a German national — died in the outbreak on the ship. The Argentinean government says it believes the married couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing at a landfill in Ushuaia, Argentina before boarding the ship.

In total, five people have been confirmed to have contracted the virus while three others are suspected of being infected.

Contributing: Reuters

Tracking deadly hantavirus outbreak: Cruise ship map, passengers, symptoms

Janet Loehrke, George Petras and Ramon Padilla

At least 149 people, 17 of them from the United States, are being monitored for hantavirus as part of an international disease response after an outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship caused the deaths of three people and infected five others.

The virus has been identified as the Andes virus, the only type of hantavirus that can be transmitted from one person to another. The World Health Organization has repeatedly said the risk to the general public is currently considered low and is not calling the outbreak an epidemic.

U.S. officials in at least five states — Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia — are monitoring symptoms of seven returning passengers. Read more about the cruise ship map, passengers and symptoms here.

Passengers on hantavirus cruise ship speak on experiences

Kathleen Wong

With additional doctors now aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship and those with suspected or confirmed cases of hantavirus evacuated, passenger Kasem Ibn Hattuta said he is feeling reassured.

"The vibe on the ship might’ve been calm with a bit of concern because we were worried about the sick ones, but now it doesn’t feel different than any of the other sea days we had before," the travel content creator said in a statement shared with the media, including USA TODAY, on May 7.

"Everyone is keeping high spirit, people are smiling and taking the situation calmly," he added.

Some passengers are reportedly venturing out to the outer decks for walks and bird watching, Hattuta said. When inside, Hattuta said everyone wears masks and keeps a safe distance from each other. Read more here.

2 test negative as Dutch authorities probe potential exposure on airplane

Thao Nguyen

In a statement on May 7, the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said it had tested three people for the Andes strain of hantavirus after they showed symptoms.

Two tested negative, while the third result was still being analyzed, according to the statement.

The three people had developed symptoms after they came into contact with a person infected with the virus on board an airplane, the health institute said. Local health authorities are continuing to monitor them.

Other passengers of the airplane will be contacted by health authorities and will be provided guidance based on their seat location and the extent of their contact with the infected person, according to the institute. Passengers who had close contact have also been asked to monitor their symptoms themselves.

The health agency said that the risk to people in the Netherlands remains "very low." Experts told USA TODAY that there is very little risk of contracting hantavirus on a flight, saying that it is a "rare disease and it would be a very rare event."

"The Andes virus is spread mainly through contact with mice and rat droppings. The likelihood of this virus spreading from person to person is very small," the statement said. "This only happens if people have been in close contact over a longer period, for example within a household setting."

Congresswoman urges for repatriation plan for Americans on cruise ship

Thao Nguyen

Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Oregan, urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya on May 7 to create a repatriation plan for the 17 U.S. citizens aboard the MV Hondius. Bynum said one of her constituents from Bend, Oregon, is among the U.S. citizens on the cruise ship.

"On Thursday, May 7, my office made contact with a constituent from the district I represent who is currently aboard the ship," she wrote in a letter. "The information we received about the conditions facing passengers and crew is deeply alarming. These Americans are trapped in a dangerous and deteriorating public health situation, and they deserve more than passive monitoring or delayed coordination."

Bynum's office also said in a news release that her constituent — identified as Dr. Stephen Kornfeld — had provided medical attention and treated passengers aboard the ship who came in "contact with the hantavirus due to the primary doctor on board getting sick." Bynum spoke with Kornfeld, who said he had not received any guidance for returning home or disembarking the ship, according to her office.

The congresswoman asked lawmakers to assess the situation and develop a repatriation plan by the end of the day on May 7.

Hantavirus tops Polymarket with over $1M in bets

Alyssa Goldberg

On May 6, the predictive market platform launched the bet: “Hantavirus pandemic in 2026.” As of 6 p.m. ET on May 7, it is the top trending bet on the platform, with over $1.3 million in shares purchased.

On the social media platform X, users called the bet "dystopian and insane." "Like betting on war, this is incredibly bleak and morally bankrupt," one user wrote.

So how did we get here? Are our empathy meters broken, or is this the result of financial desperation in an increasingly divided economy, where the rich keep getting richer while some Americans struggle to afford the rising cost of living?

Ethicists and psychologists say the use of predictive markets like Polymarket to bet on the hantavirus falls in a moral grey area. It comes down to broader cultural shifts: the gamification of everyday life and emotional desensitization from repeated exposure to stress and crises.

But turning world events into wagers can deplete empathy, cautions Brad Fulton, associate professor of management and social policy at Indiana University Bloomington.

"We now live in information environments where a disease outbreak registers as a data point before it registers as a story about human suffering," he told USA TODAY.

Health officials in Virginia monitoring resident who was aboard ship

Mary Walrath-Holdridge

Health officials in Virginia told USA TODAY on Thursday that they are also monitoring one resident who has since returned home from the MV Hondius. The resident is in good health, Virginia Department of Health spokesperson Maria Reppas said, and is under public health monitoring. 

"A small number (less than five) of exposed Virginians might be identified in the days ahead," said Reppas, who added that the department believes the risk to the general public is low. 

Virginia is the fifth state to report the return of locals who were aboard the ship. California, Arizona, Texas and Georgia are also monitoring residents who were passengers, according to their respective health departments. 

There's very little risk of catching hantavirus on a flight

Zach Wichter

Airline passengers are at very low risk of contracting hantavirus while they fly, experts say.

Amid the current cruise ship outbreak, many travelers are wondering how their own plans may be affected. The good news for flyers is there's virtually no risk of catching the virus during a plane trip, but for those who are still concerned, some basic precautions can reduce that small risk even more.

"It’s a rare disease and it would be a very rare event," Nicole Iovine, the chief hospital epidemiologist at University of Florida Health in Gainesville, Florida, told USA TODAY.

Many of the precautions a traveler could take are similar to those that became familiar at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"One would be to wear an N95 mask so that the air they breathe would not contain any of the viral particles that may be suspended in the air, and the second is to practice excellent hand hygiene, and that could be washing hands or using alcohol hand sanitizer," Iovine said.

'We are not prepared' for outbreaks amid CDC cuts, experts say

Sara Moniuszko

In a press briefing organized by the Infectious Diseases Society of America on May 7, experts shared concerns about what they called the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s lack of information and action on hantavirus.

“A lot of the things that you would like to see, we haven't seen, and to me, that's very concerning," said Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine. "The silence that we're seeing from our premier public health institution is really concerning to me."

He explained that the CDC would typically be asked by the WHO to help in "technical assistance" in order "to provide help with tracing, to do interviews, to obtain samples, to do many of the things that are necessary in order to really investigate the outbreak."

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the Infectious Diseases Society of America's chief executive officer, added “we are not prepared.”

“We have seen large scale funding and workforce cuts made in the last year, not just to the [CDC] but to global health. Our withdrawal from WHO, our decimation of USAID, and also cuts to scientific research,” she said. “So all of these things are having really profound ripple effects. This is a situation where you really are seeing crystallized the need for bio preparedness.”

Texas residents from cruise ship return to state under monitoring, says health department

Mary Walrath-Holdridge

Texas health officials are tracking two residents who were passengers on the MV Hondius, the state's health department said Thursday.

The passengers left the ship and entered the United States before the outbreak was identified, said officials, and have not experienced any symptoms.

Though the residents are believed not to have had contact with an infected person while on the ship, they have agreed to monitor themselves in the coming days, said the health department. 

Is there a vaccine for hantavirus?

Sara M Moniuszko

There is no specific treatment that cures hantavirus diseases, according to the World Health Organization, but early supportive medical care is "key to improve survival."

This care includes clinical monitoring and managing any respiratory, cardiac or other complications, the organization says.

Americans should be aware, but not alarmed, experts say

Sara M Moniuszko

"At this time, Americans should be aware of hantavirus, but not alarmed,” infectious disease expert Dr. Sukrut Dwivedi of Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center told USA TODAY.

“The overall risk to the public remains markedly low,” he added. “The Andes strain has shown limited human transmission in South America, which is why it draws attention, but there is no evidence of sustained spread in the United States."

In the latest World Health Organization briefing, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove explained hantavirus is very different from coronavirus and does not spread the same way.

"I want to be unequivocal here: this is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic," she said. "This is an outbreak that we see on a ship (and) there's a confined area... But this is not the same situation we were in six years ago."

In a contained setting like a cruise ship, close quarters can amplify risk, Dwivedi added in a statement."Health authorities are appropriately emphasizing contact tracing, isolation and monitoring of close contacts," he said. 

WHO informs 12 countries of potential exposure

Eve Chen

Travelers from a dozen countries disembarked the ship in St. Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic where Napoleon Bonaparte was famously exiled.

Ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said 30 people disembarked, including a passenger who died on board and is believed to be among the first hantavirus cases. His wife also got off the ship and flew to South Africa. She later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency has informed authorities in the following countries:

• Canada
• Denmark
• Germany
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Singapore
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States

The WHO is also working with authorities in South Africa – where an adult male is in intensive care after being medically evacuated from the ship and later confirmed to have hantavirus – and Spain, as the ship heads to the Canary Islands.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said they've received reports of potential suspect cases in various countries. "Some of them have had reported links to the ship or passengers on the ship," she said. "All of those will be followed up with the relevant authorities in each country."

Is hantavirus going to be a pandemic?

Eve Chen

The World Health Organization is stressing the “limited” nature of the hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius.

“This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic,” WHO's Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said in the agency’s May 7 press briefing.

While a number of people around the globe are being monitored for symptoms after either disembarking the ship or coming into contact with people from the ship, WHO officials have repeatedly said the public health risk is low, adding that past human transmission has been primarily among people with close physical contact to infected individuals.

Van Kerkhove said there are no symptomatic patients currently on board the ship, though she and her colleagues acknowledge the virus has a long incubation period.

Asked about risks surrounding passengers and crew now bound for the Canary Islands, Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, director of WHO's Health Emergency Alert & Response Operations said the ship is doing everything possible in regard to public health measures and once it docks, “We have (a) clear disembarkation plan that will not add additional risk."

Flight attendant tested for hantavirus

Natalie Neysa Alund

A woman in the Netherlands, who local media reported is a flight attendant for a commercial airline, was being tested for a possible hantavirus infection, Mischa Stubenitsky, a spokesperson for the Dutch Health Ministry, confirmed to USA TODAY on May 7.

The local outlets reported that the woman works for KLM, an airline that confirmed a cruise passenger who died from hantavirus had traveled on board one of its flights.

When contacted by USA TODAY, the airline said it would not comment about the flight attendant, citing privacy concerns.

Gene Hackman's wife died from hantavirus

Melina Khan

Hantavirus is the same infection that killed Betsy Arakawa, the wife of late actor Gene Hackman.

Hackman and Arakawa were both found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home in February 2025. Hackman, 95, died from natural causes. Arakawa, 65, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. That's a severe, potentially deadly disease caused by hantavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After Arakawa and Hackman were found dead, officials conducted an environmental assessment of their home that found evidence of rodents and rodent feces around their property, according to a copy of the report obtained by USA TODAY in April 2025.

While Arakawa's death and the infections among those on board the MV Hondius both center on hantavirus, the cases are different because of the suspected transmission.

Arakawa is believed to have contracted the virus from the rodent droppings found around her and Hackman's home, while some of the infected cruise ship passengers are suspected to have gotten sick from each other.

Is hantavirus in the US?

Thao Nguyen

Public health agencies in Georgia, Arizona and California are monitoring residents who were aboard the MV Hondius cruise but who have since returned to their homes. None of the people being monitored have shown signs of illness, health officials told USA TODAY.

The Georgia Department of Public Health is monitoring two residents, the agency said in a statement on May 6. The Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed that it had been notified about one resident who had been on the MV Hondius, a cruise ship operated by Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

The California Department of Public Health said it was alerted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that state residents were also on board the ship. The agency did not disclose how many people were being monitored in California.

"We are coordinating with local health officials, as needed, to monitor returning travelers. There is no information that the California residents are ill or infected," the California health department said in a statement May 7. "In order to protect patient privacy, CDPH cannot disclose the travelers’ residences or other information. At this time, the risk to public health in California is low."

"At this time, the risk to the American public is extremely low," the CDC said in a statement about the cruise outbreak on May 6.

Where is the cruise ship now?

USA TODAY Staff

The MV Hondius departed from its location off Cape Verde, an island nation near Africa's west coast, on May 6 and headed north.

The ship will sail toward the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain.

"This is expected to take 3-4 days," operator Oceanwide said in a May 6 update. "Three additional medical professionals have embarked m/v Hondius to provide optimal medical care during the crossing."

Early on May 6, three passengers with suspected infections were evacuated from the ship. They were transferred on two medical aircrafts and have since landed in the Netherlands for treatment, Oceanwide said.

What's happening onboard?

USA TODAY Staff

WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove said during a May 5 news conference that passengers on board have been asked to remain in their cabins "while disinfection and other public health measures are carried out."

The ship also has "plenty" of food and water on board, she added.

Jake Rosmarin, a guest aboard MV Hondius, said in a statement that passengers are generally in good spirits and that safety protocols such as social distancing and masking are in place.

Passengers can have meals delivered to their cabin and are allowed access to outer decks for fresh air, he added.

"Oceanwide Expeditions and the crew have been doing everything within their ability to keep passengers safe, informed, and as comfortable as possible during this time," he said. The company confirmed to USA TODAY that the measures Rosmarin referenced were in place.

How did the hantavirus outbreak start?

USA TODAY Staff

Officials believe a husband and wife, Dutch nationals, were infected while they were off the cruise ship, engaging in wildlife expeditions. Others with suspected infections may have come in contact with the virus on islands as well, WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove said during a briefing.

"We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts – the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins, etcetera," Van Kerkhove said.

On May 6, the WHO said the strain of hantavirus has been confirmed through laboratory testing as Andes virus, a strain found in South America that is believed to spread person-to-person.

The WHO has also said the current risk to the rest of the world is low, but it is continuing to monitor the situation and provide updates.

What causes hantavirus?

Sara M Moniuszko

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that naturally infect rodents, sometimes long‑term without apparent illness, and are occasionally transmitted to humans, according to the World Health Organization.

"Although many hantavirus species have been identified worldwide, only a limited number are known to cause human disease," the WHO adds.

Hantavirus is primarily spread by rodents through exposure to their urine, droppings or saliva and less commonly through a scratch or bite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"While rare, hantavirus may spread between people and can lead to severe respiratory illness and requires careful patient monitoring, support and response," the WHO notes.