CDC says threat of widespread outbreak of hantavirus remains low

TENERIFE, SPAIN - MAY 09: Members of the press report from an expected reception point for passengers from the MV Hondius at the Granadilla Port on May 09, 2026 in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. The cruise ship MV Hondius, which had three passengers die from Hantavirus last month and eight more reported cases, is expected to arrive on Sunday May 10 in Tenerife, where the remaining passengers will be repatriated to their respective countries. At a press conference this week, representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the outbreak of this rare virus did not constitute a pandemic, but it has stirred anxieties in the Canary Islands and elsewhere.

Members of the press report from an expected reception point for passengers from the MV Hondius at the Granadilla Port on May 09, 2026 in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday said the agency had deep experience with the Andes strain of the hantavirus, offering assurance to the American public that there was low risk for a widespread outbreak.

The remarks from CDC officials come as headlines about the virus — which broke out aboard a cruise ship last month — have sparked fears of a COVID-like pandemic.

Officials speaking to reporters on Saturday stressed that transmission of the virus from person to person was rare and the risk to the American public remains “extremely low.”

Hantavirus is typically contracted when humans come into contact with rodent urine, saliva or feces.

The Andes strain of the virus, however — which is the one currently being monitored aboard the MV Honius cruise ship — can, in rare instances, transmit person to person.

Three people from the cruise — a Dutch couple and a German woman — have died from the virus.

The Dutch couple is thought to have come into contact with hantavirus before boarding the ship, during a birdwatching excursion at an Argentine landfill site.

More than two dozen American passengers were aboard the ship. Seven have already returned to the United States, but 17 more remain onboard, as it approaches the Spanish Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.

Officials said that the seven passengers who are back stateside have been monitored while at their homes and have at no point exhibited any symptoms related to the virus.

The remaining 17 will eventually be brought back into the country and stationed inside the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where they will also be monitored.

The CDC officials stressed that the group’s time at the unit would not constitute a quarantine, as has been previously reported by CNN.

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