Passengers from hantavirus-hit cruise ship being monitored at US medical units

ThatRobGuy · May 11, 2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/11/us/live-news/hantavirus-cruise-outbreak

• Eighteen passengers from the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak are now back in the US and being monitored at medical units. Sixteen of those people, including at least one who tested positive, are in Nebraska, and two others have been transferred to Emory University in Atlanta.

• All of the 16 people in Nebraska are asymptomatic, while one of the people in Atlanta is experiencing symptoms, health officials said, while stressing the virus does not spread easily.

durangodawood · May 11, 2026

i wonder how many people got it on shore vs caught it from other(s) on the ship?

Im guessing one.

ThatRobGuy · May 11, 2026

durangodawood said:
i wonder how many people got it on shore vs caught it from other(s) on the ship?

Im guessing one.

From what I'm reading, that may be tough to tell at this point as it can have an incubation period with a pretty wide gap.
(from days, up to six weeks if I read that correctly)

So we may have to wait to see if any new cases popup that are well outside the normal incubation period to be able to say with confidence that there was a non-Cruise/post-Cruise transmission since any new positives right now could still be in the window that I could have happened on the ship.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN · May 11, 2026

I hope it better contained, than COVID-19.

Tuur · May 11, 2026

durangodawood said:
i wonder how many people got it on shore vs caught it from other(s) on the ship?

Im guessing one.

Supposedly at least one passenger, possible two, had went to a dump in Argentina. One of the passengers was an ornithologist and was looking for a particular bird. The ship left from Argentina and the virus is found in Chile and Argentina so odds favor some were infected before they boarded. That may or may not be the case, of course. Obviously at least one had to be infected.

Tuur · May 11, 2026

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:
I hope it better contained, than COVID-19.

Hantavirus, including Andes Hantavirus, isn't as infectious as a coronavirus.

ThatRobGuy · May 12, 2026

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:
I hope it better contained, than COVID-19.

According to the WHO, they're saying "it's not the next covid", in terms of the transmission rates, it appears to be notably lower.

Virus	R₀ (before interventions)
Hantavirus (Andes)	~1–2
COVID-19 (original)	~2–3
COVID-19 (Delta)	~6–7
COVID-19 (Omicron)	~10–15

...they're saying it requires very close extended contact in an enclosed space, as where the covid 19 variants were basically "if someone sneezed in a room, and you walked into the the room a minute or two later, you could get it"

Reason #364 for why I'm not keen on cruises lol

durangodawood · May 12, 2026

Tuur said:
.....The ship left from Argentina and the virus is found in Chile and Argentina so odds favor some were infected before they boarded......

The virus is found in USA too. I was acquainted with someone here, where I live, who lost a loved one to hantavirus. Maybe an American passenger brough it on board from home.

Tuur · May 12, 2026

durangodawood said:
The virus is found in USA too. I was acquainted with someone here, where I live, who lost a loved one to hantavirus. Maybe an American passenger brough it on board from home.

A hantavirus native to the Americas, yes. Andes hantavirus? Unlikely. Andes hantavirus seems mostly in Argentina and Chile. Other strains in the Americas are also deadly, but are spread through rodent droppings, urine, and saliva, but not person to person. Andes hantavirus spreads person to person and also like other hantaviruses. Note that Gene Hackman’s wife died of hantavirus, too.

Running that back-of-the-envelope calculation again, there are a little over 27 cases per year in the US. Without checking, think my previous calculation interpreted that as fatalities. But at about 35%, that’s 9 to 10 deaths each year in the US. Takeaway is that any infestation of mice should be dealt with aggressively and caution exercised in clean-up and handling carcasses, but it’s not something to panic over. Consider the likely number of mice in homes vs cases. That’s not making light of the person you knew who died from a hantavirus, only that it’s something to be prudent about and not panic.

durangodawood · May 12, 2026

Tuur said:
A hantavirus native to the Americas, yes. Andes hantavirus? Unlikely. Andes hantavirus seems mostly in Argentina and Chile. Other strains in the Americas are also deadly, but are spread through rodent droppings, urine, and saliva, but not person to person. Andes hantavirus spreads person to person and also like other hantaviruses. Note that Gene Hackman’s wife died of hantavirus, too.

Running that back-of-the-envelope calculation again, there are a little over 27 cases per year in the US. Without checking, think my previous calculation interpreted that as fatalities. But at about 35%, that’s 9 to 10 deaths each year in the US. Takeaway is that any infestation of mice should be dealt with aggressively and caution exercised in clean-up and handling carcasses, but it’s not something to panic over. Consider the likely number of mice in homes vs cases. That’s not making light of the person you knew who died from a hantavirus, only that it’s something to be prudent about and not panic.

Ah I wasnt aware this was a different strain of the virus.

FireDragon76 · May 13, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
According to the WHO, they're saying "it's not the next covid", in terms of the transmission rates, it appears to be notably lower.

Virus R₀ (before interventions)
Hantavirus (Andes) ~1–2
COVID-19 (original) ~2–3
COVID-19 (Delta) ~6–7
COVID-19 (Omicron) ~10–15

...they're saying it requires very close extended contact in an enclosed space, as where the covid 19 variants were basically "if someone sneezed in a room, and you walked into the the room a minute or two later, you could get it"

Reason #364 for why I'm not keen on cruises lol

Hantavirus is usually transmitted by contact with rodent urine or feces. So it usually requires more than just being around somebody that has it.

The six week quarantine is probably about "abundance of caution", and not a likely risk of transimission.

ThatRobGuy · May 13, 2026

FireDragon76 said:
The six week quarantine is probably about "abundance of caution", and not a likely risk of transimission.

It sounds like this particular andes strain can be transmitted from person to person.

I suspect the quarantine period was set to align with the incubation period. They're saying that the incubation period can be up to six weeks for some people (meaning people who got off the cruise, and still feel fine and are still not reading on a PCR test, aren't technically out of the woods yet until mid-June)

durangodawood · May 13, 2026

Whats it going to take to kill the cruise ship industry?

ThatRobGuy · May 13, 2026

durangodawood said:
Whats it going to take to kill the cruise ship industry?

I don't know that it'd ever go away as there seems to be a demand for it.

Why, I'm not sure... I've never seen the appeal, but some people seem to love it.

Overpriced drink packages, tiny rooms, and buffets in a floating petri dish never sounded like a good time to me, but people from my parents generation seem to fancy it as being the epitome of luxurious travel.

durangodawood · May 13, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
I don't know that it'd ever go away as there seems to be a demand for it.

Why, I'm not sure... I've never seen the appeal, but some people seem to love it.

Overpriced drink packages, tiny rooms, and buffets in a floating petri dish never sounded like a good time to me, but people from my parents generation seem to fancy it as being the epitome of luxurious travel.

Tip: whenever possible eat in the dining room and not the buffet. You get served. The food is better. You dont overeat like everyone does at a buffet. Its more relaxing as youre not up and down all the time.

Ive done a few cruises, but its not my choice for vacation / travel.

Tuur · May 13, 2026

durangodawood said:
Whats it going to take to kill the cruise ship industry?

Beats me. You’ve got the cost to go on a cruise; you’ve got rotavirus; you’ve got notovirus, You’re in a floating hotel, and if you pay for it, a floating resort. That’s even without my father’s brief account of riding a troop ship in rough seas.

Have you ever seen the Keeping Up Appearances episode where Onslow won a cruise and sat in his stateroom looking out the window? That would be me on a cruise. Of course, the joke was he was watching the window like he watched TV back home, but still, I don’t see the appeal.

durangodawood · May 13, 2026

Tuur said:
Beats me. You’ve got the cost to go on a cruise; you’ve got rotavirus; you’ve got notovirus, You’re in a floating hotel, and if you pay for it, a floating resort. That’s even without my father’s brief account of riding a troop ship in rough seas.

Have you ever seen the Keeping Up Appearances episode where Onslow won a cruise and sat in his stateroom looking out the window? That would be me on a cruise. Of course, the joke was he was watching the window like he watched TV back home, but still, I don’t see the appeal.

I found fun things to do. They had a really good string quartet. Did beautiful hikes / bike rides on shore. But yeah on balance Id rather set my own agenda.

essentialsaltes · Friday at 1:53 PM

CDC and Florida at odds over hantavirus cruise ship passenger’s quarantine

One of the 18 passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius says she feels like she’s being “held hostage” and just wants to go home.

Florida health officials are pushing back at quarantine guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius exposed to the deadly Andes hantavirus.

“I’m being held hostage in this power struggle between a state and the federal government,” said Angela Perryman, 47, who has been at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit since May 11.

Perryman said that health officials previously told passengers that they would be able to leave federal quarantine by the end of May and spend the rest of their 42-day quarantine under home supervision. The first five went home June 1.

States were required by the CDC to station law enforcement or public health employees outside the homes of quarantined passengers for surveillance.

Florida health officials, it appears, have a different approach.

“At this time, neither the state of Florida nor the Department is planning to implement round-the-clock surveillance measures,” Brian Wright, a spokesman for the Florida Health Department, said in an email.

Passengers from hantavirus-hit cruise ship being monitored at US medical units

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