WHO Officials Minimize Pandemic Threat of Cruise Hantavirus Outbreak

The recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is not expected to trigger the next pandemic, according to officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO), who aim to alleviate worries about a potential new viral contagion.

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

“This is an outbreak on a vessel. We are familiar with this virus. The circumstances are not akin to those we faced six years ago.”

Read:
Hantavirus: Singapore tests two following deadly Atlantic cruise incident
South Africa verifies Andes hantavirus can spread to humans

The Dutch-flagged Hondius is currently heading towards the Canary Islands after evacuating three individuals in Cape Verde on Wednesday.

So far, three passengers have died, six individuals have contracted the virus, and another two cases are considered suspicious.

While WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus referred to the situation as “a serious incident,” he emphasized that it does not pose a public-health risk—even in the Canary Islands where passengers are likely to disembark.

The outbreak has prompted an international response and captured global attention, reminiscent of the previous pandemic where cruise ships symbolized how quickly a pathogen could spread in confined spaces.

Nonetheless, hantavirus is less contagious than the coronavirus and is not as prone to mutation, say medical experts.

“Honestly, if someone had told me, ‘Oh, we’ll see a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship,’ that would have been the last thing I would have imagined,” remarked Carlos del Rio, an epidemiologist at Emory University, during a briefing with the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “It’s not on my bingo card.”

Hantavirus is a rare infection typically transmitted through contact with infected rodent droppings or by inhaling contaminated dust. Symptoms may take weeks to show, and severe cases can escalate quickly 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

Ship evacuees

One of the individuals evacuated in Cape Verde on Wednesday was the ship’s doctor, who likely contracted the virus while tending to passengers, according to Van Kerkhove.

Virologists are working urgently to track down around 30 passengers who disembarked the ship in Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, and others who may have been exposed to the second cruise participant who died after assisting her husband’s body off the ship.

The 69-year-old Dutch woman traveled 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 from the same flight has been hospitalized and tested for hantavirus, as reported by Dutch health authorities, who noted that fewer than 10 people on the flight had close contact with the woman.

Read:
Evacuated hantavirus patients reach Netherlands as ship continues its voyage
Cruise ship linked to hantavirus outbreak to head to Canary Islands after passenger evacuations

The government of the Canary Islands, which manages health services in the region, has questioned the necessity for the vessel to come there rather than managing the outbreak and evacuating passengers from Cape Verde.

The ship is expected to arrive in Tenerife on Sunday. WHO officials expressed confidence that the risk will remain low, and they are formulating a plan for how passengers and crew can return to their home countries.

The vessel will anchor offshore rather than docking at port, Pedro Gullón, Spain’s director-general of public health, mentioned during a briefing on Thursday.

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

Listen/read: Hantavirus: Calm encouraged as SA health teams work to trace contacts

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

© 2026 Bloomberg