An American Passenger Tests Positive For Hantavirus After Returning Home From Cruise Ship As Virus Spreads – Why This Case Is So Scary!
Many hantavirus cruise ship passengers are on their way to their home countries, and several are already getting sick!
As we’ve been following, three people have died after a hantavirus outbreak on an expedition vessel named MV Hondius. A total of eight people, including the diseased, had grown ill before evacuation efforts began. While the illness usually only transfers via infected rodent feces, this case happens to involve the rare Andes strain, which can be passed between humans. Health organizations insist the risk to the general public is low, but that doesn’t make this new discovery any less frightening.
Related: RFK Jr. LAID OFF Cruise Ship Sanitation Inspectors Prior To Hantavirus Outbreak!
As mentioned, a reported 17 Americans are said to have gotten off the ship on Sunday after it docked in the Canary Islands. They then boarded a government plane to Omaha, Nebraska, where the passengers were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility. There, they’ll be tested and assessed for their risk levels of spreading the virus before being allowed home, where it’s recommended they self-isolate for around 42 days.
But already, some travelers have gotten sick! According to the Department of Health & Human Services late Sunday night, one of the 17 American passengers tested positive for hantavirus — but is NOT showing symptoms. Another person has mild symptoms. According to the HHS, these two passengers traveled to Nebraska “in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.” So, hopefully, they didn’t spread anything onboard.
The person with symptoms was to be taken to a different medical facility than the rest, with a press briefing on Monday via CNN stating that two people were taken to Atlanta’s Emory University for “further assessment and care,” including at least one person who has symptoms. A couple is in a bicontainment unit, according to the outlet.
HHS through @ASPRgov and @CDCgov is supporting @StateDept in the repatriation of 17 American citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship affected by the Andes variant of hantavirus.
All 17 are currently en route via @StateDept airlift to the United States, with two of the…
— HHS (@HHSGov) May 11, 2026
Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network that’ll be caring for the passengers, announced:
“One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms.”
The idea that someone’s tested positive but doesn’t have symptoms is definitely unnerving! Will the individual soon develop symptoms? Or could they always be asymptomatic? And if so, how many passengers who’d already gotten off the ship and returned to normal life could be spreading the virus without knowing??
This isn’t the only person to test positive, either. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist told France-Inter on Monday that a French woman tested positive for the virus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight. She was one of five French passengers taken off the boat, and she developed symptoms on the flight to Paris.
So, while folks might be getting off the ship, we are certainly not in the clear yet! Now, again, experts have been telling everyone that the threat to the public remains “low,” and many don’t think we’re headed towards another COVID-level pandemic. Still, it’s not calming to hear this virus continue to spread as all these passengers gear up to go to their home communities!
Thoughts?! Let us know (below).
