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Editor’s Note: This article was updated May 11, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. and will continue to be updated as new information becomes available.
At this point, most people have heard about the MV Hondius, an Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship that has recently tied to residents across the globe being strictly monitored for hantavirus.
As of this morning, May 11, 2026, seven people have been confirmed to have hantavirus, with two others are suspected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Passengers disembarked the cruise ship in the evening of Sunday, May 10, 2026. Seventeen American passengers were flown to the U.S. on a plane sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and taken to a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center out of precaution. One American tested positive, though it is unconfirmed whether that passenger experienced any symptoms; he or she was treated separately from others.
Seven Americans returned home from the cruise prior to May 10 and have been monitored by state health officials. None have shown symptoms of hantavirus.
While it is easy to panic, considering the recent COVID-19 global pandemic, there are many ways to keep your customers at ease as this story develops throughout the news cycle.
What to know about the recent outbreak
While hantavirus is typically a rodent-borne virus, spread to humans typically through contact with infected rodent feces or saliva. Officials recently confirmed this particular strain to be the Andes virus, which can, in limited cases, be transmitted human-to-human.
The WHO has insisted risk to the general public is very low. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses and COVID-19 technical lead, said in a news release, “This is not the start of a pandemic … While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low.”
As noted in the WHO video above, human-to-human transmission has been documented only for Andes virus in the Americas and remains uncommon. When it occurs, transmission between people has been associated with close and prolonged contact, particularly among household members or intimate partners, and appears most likely during the early phase of illness, when the virus is more transmissible.
