With fears of hantavirus outbreak, here's the real pandemic risk
With fears of hantavirus outbreak, here's the real pandemic risk
Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY Sat, May 9, 2026 at 9:47 PM UTC
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A deadly respiratory viral outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has spurred fears about another pandemic.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius — which has infected eight people and left three dead — has low risk to public health.
Hantavirus, the name for viruses derived from rodents that can infect humans, aren’t typically transmissible from person to person. However, the Andes virus type aboard the Hondius is known to spread between people, albeit rarely, and most often from prolonged, close contact with a symptomatic person who has the respiratory disease, according to the CDC.
WHO said there are currently no symptomatic passengers on board. The passengers have been on the ship since April 1, and they’re set to disembark May 11, which would be at the end of when symptoms can occur between 1 and 6 weeks.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College of Medicine's National School of Tropical Medicine, said there may be some new cases arrising as people get set to head to their home countries. However, it’s unlikely to cause a wider epidemic, let alone a pandemic, given how the virus has spread.
Still, the current outbreak is a warning sign of what’s to come with zoonotic diseases that move from animals to people, public health experts say.
“We have to be aware of the fact that zoonotic spillover epidemics are increasing with frequency and overall in severity,” Hotez told USA TODAY. “And this won't be the last one.”
A person in protective clothing stands next to an ambulance during an evacuation operation of suspected hantavirus patients, following an outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius, in Praia, Cape Verde, May 6, 2026,
In recent decades, the world has seen at least three major coronaviruses jump from animals to humans to spark health crises: the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic in the early 2000s; the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in the 2010s; and, most strikingly, the COVID-19 pandemic. Other examples include ebola and mpox epidemics in Africa.
Hotez attributes this to humans increasingly interacting with wildlife and their habitats, including through urbanization and deforestation. At the same time, factors related to climate change, such as altered temperatures and rainfall patterns, are making conditions more hospitable for pathogens to find hosts living closer to humans.
In the case of the ship's hantavirus outbreak, Argentine investigators suspect a Dutch couple went birdwatching in southern Argentina, where they were exposed to infected rodents, which can spread hantavirus to humans through their urine, droppings or saliva and, less commonly, through scratching or biting.
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On April 1, the couple boarded the cruise ship departing from Ushuaia, Argentina, with nearly 150 others.
Like other cruise ships that require people to be in close quarters, Hotez said, those conditions can easily spread disease. Notably, a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship affected hundreds in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic began.
Weather could be another possible factor for spread aboard the ship, Hotez said. In the South Atlantic, temperatures currently are cooler, forcing people indoors instead of, say, a Caribbean carnival ship where people aren’t as in close contact while enjoying warm weather outside.
The Hondius ship stopped at several remote locations before WHO was notified of the cluster of cases with severe acute respiratory illness among passengers and crew, so officials are working to track cases.
A 2020 New England Journal of Medicine article identified person-to-person transmission of Andes virus during a deadly outbreak in Patagonian Argentina, in Chubut Province, further north from where the Hondius departed. Then, the outbreak resulted in 34 confirmed cases and 11 people dead. Researchers found attending mass gatherings or having extensive contact with others contributed to increased likelihood of transmission.
Researchers found a higher presence of viral antibodies coupled with attending mass gatherings and having extensive contact with others. Both were linked to higher likelihood of spread.
Raina Plowright, a Cornell University professor who studies zoonotic spillover, told USA TODAY there’s a broader concern that pathogens, under the right circumstances, can infect humans at scale. This includes known viruses such as hantavirus, but also unknown pathogens circulating in nature.
“The more that we allow the new interfaces to open, the more we're just rolling the dice," she said.
In a message, Dr. Céline Gounder, an American infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist, said zoonotic spillover events will continue happening globally. In 2026, the United States formally exited WHO, which caught this hantavirus outbreak through its early warning system. Public experts have said that not being a member of WHO limits American planning and preparedness moving ahead.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why hantavirus outbreak spurs fears about disease spread from wildlife
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