The MV Hondius cruise liner, transporting voyagers under suspicion of hantavirus instances onboard, departs Praia, Cape Verde, May 6, 2026. Reuters
A disease expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) stated Thursday that the suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise vessel does not herald the commencement of a new COVID-19 global crisis.
The WHO is presently documenting eight occurrences, which encompass five lab-verified instances and three presumed instances. Sadly, three individuals from these eight cases have succumbed to the illness.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an expert in infectious diseases and the acting head of epidemic and pandemic handling at the WHO, was queried during a media briefing regarding the variances between this localized outbreak and the initial phases of the COVID pandemic.
"I want to be very clear. This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the genesis of a COVID pandemic. This is an occurrence that we are seeing on a vessel," Van Kerkhove clarified.
Van Kerkhove elaborated that hantavirus does not propagate in a similar manner to coronaviruses, but instead through "close, personal interaction." The majority of hantaviruses do not get transmitted from individual to individual.
"The procedures being implemented onboard [the ship] are safety measures to halt any further proliferation," she supplemented.
Health personnel assisting patients onto a boat from the cruise ship MV Hondius, while stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, May 6, 2026.AFP via Getty Images
It seems there is one affirmed occurrence and four speculated occurrences that have not yet been included in the WHO's formal tabulation.
Officials informed ABC News that an individual, who was on a KLM airliner with the Dutch female patient who subsequently passed away, manifested indications. Leiden University Medical Centre has validated that the hospitalized patient has hantavirus.
Moreover, a duo of Singapore inhabitants who were traveling on the vessel are presently under observation. Singapore's Contagious Diseases Agency communicated that they were alerted to the individuals on May 4 and 5.
"They have been sequestered at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, where they are undergoing tests for hantavirus. The hazard to the wider community in Singapore is presently minimal," the agency conveyed.
The agency included that test outcomes are pending, with one inhabitant exhibiting a nasal discharge. The other individual is devoid of symptoms.
The French Health Ministry also put out a declaration on Thursday stating that a French citizen has been examined after they presented slight symptoms. This individual had been in contact with one of the validated occurrences.
To date, there have been three fatalities recorded, among them a married Dutch couple. The 70-year-old male patient died on April 11, and his remains were removed from the vessel on the island of St. Helena on April 24. His 69-year-old spouse disembarked on the identical day, and her health deteriorated rapidly. She died at a South Africa healthcare facility on April 26.
A third voyager, a German woman, displayed pneumonia indications commencing on April 28, as stated by the WHO. The woman died on May 2 from causes not yet known, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, the operator of the cruise ship.
The WHO relayed that 29 individuals disembarked on St. Helena on the same day that the remains of the Dutch male patient and his wife were removed.
They voyaged to 12 countries: Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, St. Kitts and Nevis, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
Oceanwide Expeditions has reached out to all of the disembarked guests. In the U.S., local administrations in three states — Arizona, Georgia and California — are keeping tabs on the disembarked voyagers and are executing contact tracing. As of now, none have demonstrated indications of sickness.
Anais Legend, the technical leader for viral hemorrhagic fevers at WHO, stated during the press briefing on Thursday that "step-by-step instructions are being formulated" for the disembarked voyagers and that the WHO is collaborating with national administrations.
Anyone exhibiting any indications of symptoms will be sequestered while other voyagers have their exposure risk assessed.
The cruise ship MV Hondius, carrying passengers suspected of having cases of hantavirus on board, leaves Praia, Cape Verde, May 6, 2026.Reuters
Public health authorities expressed their expectation for a more proactive response from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health.
"The WHO or a nation would typically request the CDC to provide assistance in technical domains," Dr. Carlos del Rio, an H. Cliff Sauls distinguished medicine professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, conveyed to reporters on Thursday.
Ordinarily, CDC teams would be dispatched to a location, he mentioned, and those teams would perform contact monitoring and interviews and undertake an outbreak probing.
"I would have anticipated that by this point, several days ago, we would have seen a unit from CDC deployed to the region," he supplemented.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the IDSA, added that she would have looked forward to a CDC press conference, an advisory from the agency's Health Alert Network, or details from the NIH on potential treatments in progress that could be granted emergency usage permission to aid in treating hantavirus patients.
Marrazzo stated that she is not aware of conversations regarding prospective therapies at NIH not transpiring, but it "doesn't give me a great deal of assurance or confidence that we are not hearing any of that."
The CDC disseminated a statement on X on Wednesday on behalf of NIH Director and acting CDC director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya that stated, "Our sympathies are with the voyagers aboard the cruise vessel M/V Hondius and their relatives during this difficult period. Our CDC team initiated coordination with domestic and global associates as soon as we were notified of a hantavirus situation."
The statement mentioned that there is "clear, documented health guidance for the American voyagers via the State Department" and that the CDC "will persist in providing updates as further details come to light and remains devoted to safeguarding the well-being and protection of the American populace."
The agency also released a declaration on its webpage stating that the Trump administration "is meticulously tracking the situation" and that the Department of State "is orchestrating a coordinated, all-encompassing government response, encompassing direct interaction with voyagers, diplomatic collaboration, and engagement with domestic and global health entities." The CDC also conveyed that the risk to the American public is "exceptionally low."
The WHO stated during Thursday's media briefing that the U.S. is liaising with the global health agency in a technical role.
Considering that the localized outbreak is restricted and confined to a cruise liner, the "notion of disseminating alerts worldwide and creating widespread alarm is not warranted," said Dr. Abdirahman Mahmoud, director of the WHO's health emergency alert and response operations.
He supplemented that the WHO is "informally" aware that contact investigation has been completed on the U.S. voyagers who disembarked last month and have returned home.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com