WHO Officials Downplay Pandemic Risk of Cruise-Linked Hantavirus Outbreak

Officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) have indicated that the recent hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship is unlikely to lead to the next pandemic, aiming to ease concerns about a new viral threat.

“This is not Covid, and this isn’t influenza,” remarked Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, during a recent press briefing.

“This is an outbreak occurring on a vessel. We are acquainted with this virus. The conditions do not resemble those from six years ago.”

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The Dutch-flagged Hondius is currently en route to the Canary Islands after evacuating three people in Cape Verde on Wednesday.

To date, three passengers have died, six individuals have been infected, and two more cases are viewed as questionable.

While WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus labeled the situation “a serious incident,” he stressed that it does not present a public health threat—even in the Canary Islands where passengers are expected to disembark.

The outbreak has triggered an international response and garnered global attention, reminiscent of earlier pandemics where cruise ships epitomized how swiftly pathogens can spread in confined environments.

Nonetheless, medical experts assert that hantavirus is less transmissible than the coronavirus and is less likely to mutate.

“Honestly, if someone had told me there would be a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, that would have been the last thing I would have expected,” said Carlos del Rio, an epidemiologist at Emory University, during an Infectious Diseases Society of America briefing. “It’s not on my bingo card.”

Hantavirus is a rare infection usually spread through contact with contaminated rodent droppings or inhaling infected dust. Symptoms may take weeks to manifest, and severe instances can swiftly lead to respiratory failure.

Three suspected #hantavirus case patients have just been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in coordination with @WHO, the ship’s operator and national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.… pic.twitter.com/olQBk6tdGk

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 6, 2026

Evacuated Passengers

One of the evacuees in Cape Verde was the ship’s doctor, who likely contracted the virus while assisting passengers, according to Van Kerkhove.

Virologists are urgently working to trace approximately 30 passengers who disembarked in Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, as well as others who may have had contact with the second cruise participant who passed away after helping her husband’s body off the ship.

The 69-year-old Dutch woman flew from the island to Johannesburg and briefly boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam on April 25 before being deemed unfit for travel.

A cabin attendant on the same flight has been hospitalized and tested for hantavirus, as reported by Dutch health authorities, indicating that fewer than ten passengers on that flight had close contact with the woman.

Read:
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The Canary Islands government, which oversees health services in the area, has questioned the need for the vessel to arrive there instead of managing the outbreak and evacuating passengers from Cape Verde.

The ship is slated to arrive in Tenerife on Sunday. WHO officials have expressed confidence that the threat will remain minimal, and they are developing a strategy for how passengers and crew can safely return to their home countries.

The vessel will anchor offshore instead of docking at port, noted Pedro Gullón, Spain’s director-general of public health, in a briefing on Thursday.

“Once we have a clear understanding of the situation, and if there are no new cases or symptomatic individuals aboard, we will begin the process of returning individuals to their home destinations,” he added.

Listen/read: Hantavirus: Calm encouraged as South African health teams trace contacts

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