U.S. health officials are attempting to calm fears of a possible global health crisis after a hantavirus outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship led to multiple deaths and triggered an international evacuation operation involving American passengers.
The outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship has drawn comparisons to the early days of COVID-19, prompting warnings and quarantine plans as infected passengers prepare to return to the United States.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the virus is unlikely to become another pandemic.
CDC Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya told CNN on Sunday that Americans should not panic over the outbreak.
“This is not COVID, Jake, and we don’t want to treat it like COVID,” Bhattacharya said during an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
He added that health officials have successfully contained similar outbreaks before and are following established hantavirus protocols.
American Passengers Face Quarantine Measures
Seventeen American passengers who were onboard the ship are expected to return to the United States under strict medical monitoring and quarantine procedures. According to officials, the travelers will be assessed by the CDC upon returning to the country.
The ship arrived in Tenerife, Spain, over the weekend as authorities coordinated the removal of nearly 150 passengers and crew members from multiple countries.
Spanish passengers were among the first to disembark and were then transported directly to airports. Officials said passengers would avoid contact with the public during the evacuation process.
The CDC said the risk level for each traveler would depend on whether they had close contact with symptomatic patients.
“In this case, risk doesn’t mean the risk of dying,” Bhattacharya said. “The risk is a high risk if they have been in close contact with somebody who was symptomatic.”
Health officials also confirmed that seven Americans had already returned to the United States from the ship weeks earlier through commercial flights. Those travelers were identified in states including California, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia.
According to the CDC, those passengers were asymptomatic and therefore not considered contagious.
WHO and Spain Address Hantavirus
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Spanish authorities have both stressed that the outbreak remains under control.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus traveled to Tenerife and publicly reassured residents that the virus does not pose the same threat level as COVID-19.
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“This is not another COVID,” Tedros said in a public letter addressed to residents worried about the arrival of the ship.
Spanish authorities created a tightly controlled evacuation process at the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife. Officials said passengers were transported through sealed routes directly to waiting aircraft.
The WHO recommended a 42-day quarantine period for passengers and crew members linked to the outbreak.
According to WHO updates, eight passengers who had already left the ship later became ill, while six were confirmed to have hantavirus infections. Several patients remain hospitalized in Europe and South Africa.
Three people connected to the outbreak, including a Dutch couple and a German national, reportedly died after the ship departed Argentina last month.
Officials believe the outbreak may be connected to a birdwatching trip in Argentina that some passengers attended before boarding the cruise ship.
Spain’s Health Ministry said no rats were found on board the ship, despite hantavirus often being linked to rodent waste.
