Federal health officials said the hantavirus outbreak linked to a Dutch cruise ship remains a low risk to the U.S. public despite multiple deaths, international monitoring efforts, and the activation of CDC emergency operations.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch cruise ship at its lowest emergency response level while continuing to actively monitor the situation as infected passengers and crew prepare to arrive in the Canary Islands.
According to ABC7, the CDC designated the outbreak as a “Level 3” activation, indicating that the agency currently considers the overall threat to the American public to remain low.
Despite the low-risk classification, the CDC has activated its Emergency Operations Centers and is deploying personnel to assist with response efforts tied to the outbreak aboard the Dutch-flagged cruise vessel Hondius.
Spanish authorities were preparing Friday to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members as the ship headed toward Tenerife in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa.
There are believed to be approximately 17 Americans onboard the vessel, according to a CNN report. ABC7 further reported that any American passengers onboard will be transferred to a National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska after arrival.
State health officials across the United States are also monitoring several passengers who previously returned from the voyage for possible hantavirus exposure.
The outbreak has already resulted in three deaths, while five passengers who disembarked from the ship were confirmed to have contracted hantavirus, according to statements from cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions.
The World Health Organization has reportedly also assessed the broader public risk as low. However, U.S. authorities are independently coordinating response measures following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization earlier this year. The administration cited what it described as failures by the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic originating in Wuhan, China.
Upon arrival in Tenerife, passengers are expected to be transferred to what Spanish emergency services official Virginia Barcones described as a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area.”
On Friday, the World Health Organization announced that a flight attendant who briefly boarded an aircraft used by an infected passenger had tested negative for the virus. Authorities had tested airline personnel due to concerns about possible transmission.
According to the ABC7 report, the outbreak involves the Andes strain of hantavirus, a variant that may rarely spread between people under limited circumstances.
“Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people,” the report stated. “But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.”
Health authorities across four continents have reportedly been working to identify and monitor more than two dozen passengers who left the vessel before the outbreak was confirmed. Officials are also attempting to trace individuals who may have had contact with those passengers after they disembarked.
The CDC describes early hantavirus symptoms as resembling influenza, including fever, muscle aches, fatigue, and headaches. In severe cases, the disease can progress into dangerous respiratory complications.
Authorities said nearly two weeks passed between the first onboard death and confirmation that hantavirus was responsible for the illness cluster. On April 24, approximately a dozen passengers from multiple countries reportedly departed the ship before extensive contact tracing measures had been implemented.
Federal officials said activation of the CDC’s Emergency Operations Centers is considered a precautionary response intended to coordinate epidemiologists, scientists, and medical personnel involved in monitoring the outbreak and assisting international containment efforts.
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