WTF Human-to-Human Virus Spreads Around Parts of World: Hantavirus (Andes Strain)

[Lexxi]

Hantavirus is deadly but not normally transmittable Human-to-Human.

Not human-to-human: Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from Hantavirus, but Gene Hackman did not.

Current outbreak on a cruise ship, though, is the rare human-to-human transmittable airborne version. The Andes strain of the Hantavirus. Not a new strain, been around a while. No vaccines for it, and, 40% mortality.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2026/05/06/tracking-andes-hantavirus-outbreak-cruise-ship/89963079007/

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/04/what-is-hantavirus-the-infection-that-has-killed-three-people-on-a-cruise-ship

Tracking the MV Hondius' path
April 1: The cruise ship departs Ushuaia, Argentina, at 3 p.m. local time with about 150 people onboard.

April 5: The ship reaches the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.

April 6: The ship makes several turns as it tours the region for a day. The first passenger, a 70-year-old man, falls ill while the ship is on the north coast of the islands.

April 7: The ship visits the south eastern coast of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands before it heads out to sea due northeast.

April 11: A passenger dies onboard the ship near the Tristan da Cunha, a remote island off the coast of South Africa.

April 16: After touring the nearby islands of Tristan da Cunha the ship heads southeast.

April 17: The ship circles the Gough Island before heading north.

April 22: The ship arrives at St. Helena.

April 24: The body of the passenger is removed from the ship at St. Helena. The passenger's 69-year-old wife leaves and flies to South Africa. The ship departs northwest.

April 26: The 69-year-old wife dies.

April 27: The ship arrives at Georgetown, on the Ascension Island, St. Helena. Later it departs northwest.

May 4: Test results on the 69-year-old wife are positive for hantavirus.

May 3: The ship arrives at Cape Verde, where it stays until May 6.

May 6: The ship departs for the Canary Islands.

Hmm. that's not the best timeline I've seen. oopsie. Well, in addition the ship doctor is now very ill and he, along with 2 other passengers were removed from the ship. Various people who have already exited the ship are in various hospitals with the virus.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/may/06/europe-eu-spain-sanchez-trump-icc-sanctions-merz-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates

WHO has declared the risk low. People on Twitter are afraid.

 

[Lexxi]

New England Journal of Medicine
“Super-Spreaders” and Person-to-Person Transmission of Andes Virus in Argentina

Abstract
Background
From November 2018 through February 2019, person-to-person transmission of Andes virus (ANDV) hantavirus pulmonary syndrome occurred in Chubut Province, Argentina, and resulted in 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths. Understanding the genomic, epidemiologic, and clinical characteristics of person-to-person transmission of ANDV is crucial to designing effective interventions.
Methods
Clinical and epidemiologic information was obtained by means of patient report and from public health centers. Serologic testing, contact-tracing, and next-generation sequencing were used to identify ANDV infection as the cause of this outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and to reconstruct person-to-person transmission events.
Results
After a single introduction of ANDV from a rodent reservoir into the human population, transmission was driven by 3 symptomatic persons who attended crowded social events. After 18 cases were confirmed, public health officials enforced isolation of persons with confirmed cases and self-quarantine of possible contacts; these measures most likely curtailed further spread. The median reproductive number (the number of secondary cases caused by an infected person during the infectious period) was 2.12 before the control measures were enforced and decreased to 0.96 after the measures were implemented. Full genome sequencing of the ANDV strain involved in this outbreak was performed with specimens from 27 patients and showed that the strain that was present (Epuyén/18–19) was similar to the causative strain (Epilink/96) in the first known person-to-person transmission of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by ANDV, which occurred in El Bolsón, Argentina, in 1996. Clinical investigations involving patients with ANDV hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in this outbreak revealed that patients with a high viral load and liver injury were more likely than other patients to spread infection. Disease severity, genomic diversity, age, and time spent in the hospital had no clear association with secondary transmission.
Conclusions
Among patients with ANDV hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, high viral titers in combination with attendance at massive social gatherings or extensive contact among persons were associated with a higher likelihood of transmission. (Funded by the Ministerio de Salud y Desarrollo Social de la Nación Argentina and others.)

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2009040

 

[Lexxi]

https://www.abc.es/sociedad/oms-confirma-hantavirus-suiza-salio-crucero-rastrea-20260506114353-nt.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.es%2Fsociedad%2Foms-confirma-hantavirus-suiza-salio-crucero-rastrea-20260506114353-nt.html

The WHO confirms a case of hantavirus in Switzerland from someone who disembarked from the cruise ship and is tracing their contacts

That 'around the world' part: people left the ship. Some are in the USA. Two in GA. Both appear to be currently healthy.


ETA:

 

[Isabeau]

Yeah, that’s one virus I wouldn’t want.

 

[Soen Eber]

Please not now. Please, not with this president.

 

[Isabeau]

Coffee Magic (@coffeemagic24.bsky.social)

Waiting for RFK jr. to say Tylenol is the cause of the hantavirus. 🤔💀

bsky.app

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Yeah, this will either be contained quickly or it will spread like wildfire because it's still very trendy in the USA to not even believe in germ theory.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Yeah, I've been following this news, too. It's unsettling to consider we may be facing a mutated version of the hantavirus that makes it more transmissible.

 

[Soen Eber]

The only silver lining in this is we'll probably end up losing most of the idiots. Still not worth losing everyone else.

 

[Lexxi]

The flight attendant who was working on the flight the second victim tried to get onto but was turned away for being too ill . . . . this sentence got away from me. Well, flight attendant ended up in hospital, was tested, has now come back negative.

On Thursday evening, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a message that the flight attendant, who has been reported to have symptoms, had tested negative on two tests. The news was first reported in the Inside Medicine newsletter. The result is reassuring because it suggests the virus is not being transmitted in ways beyond what scientists have observed in prior outbreaks. Mr. Ghebreyesus did caution, however, that the virus can have a long incubation time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/world/europe/hantavirus-cruise-ship-outbreak.html

 

[Free]

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)

Q: Have you been briefed on the hantavirus? TRUMP: Yes I have Q: What have you learned? TRUMP: Ahhh -- it's very much we hope under control Q: Should Americans be concerned it's going to spread? TRUMP: I hope not. We'll do the best we can.

bsky.app

I feel very reassured now.

 

[Free]

Good thing we laid off pretty much all of the CDC's cruise ship inspectors last year. GOOD WORK, DOGE!

CDC’s Full-Time Cruise Ship Inspectors Were Laid Off One Year Ago amid Record Outbreaks: Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program experienced significant layoffs almost exactly one year ago despite record outbreaks at the time, according to a 2025 report from CBS News.

The current hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch ship MV Hondius has sparked fresh questions for many about the sanitation measures that cruise ships must adhere to. While experts believe the current hantavirus outbreak did not originate from a lack of cleanliness on the ship — as passengers are thought to have been infected before joining the cruise — attention is being drawn to the actions cruise companies take to ensure their ships are properly sanitized.

In April 2025, CBS News reported that all full-time employees working for the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) had been fired, leaving a smaller group of 12 U.S. Public Health Service officers. The layoffs came amid a “record” number of norovirus outbreaks in the U.S. last year, per the report.

 

[Free]

CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social)

Hantavirus outbreak grows to 11 cases, 9 confirmed So far no cases have been identified in anyone other than passengers on the Dutch cruise ship. Read more: ow.ly/8quR50YYtoT 📷: AcfiPress Noticias Canarias, CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

bsky.app

 

[Innula Zenovka]

France confines more than 1,700 people to cruise ship after suspected norovirus outbreak

French authorities have confined more than 1,700 passengers and crew members to a cruise ship docked in Bordeaux after a suspected norovirus outbreak, officials have said.

The vessel, Ambition, which is carrying 1,233 passengers, most of them British or Irish nationals, arrived in Bordeaux on Tuesday. About 50 people had shown symptoms of the virus, French health officials said.