More than two dozen passengers potentially exposed to hantavirus aboard a cruise ship disembarked almost 2 weeks ago, several sources confirmed to MedPage Today, and Americans who were among them are now back on U.S. soil.
A total of 26 passengers disembarked the MV Hondius at St. Helena on April 24, several sources confirmed to MedPage Today.
There are about seven Americans who disembarked at that time and have since returned to the U.S., and states have been working to track them down for testing and monitoring, according to sources with close knowledge of the situation.
They say the passengers live in several states, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said they were looking into the issue. Requests for comment to other state health departments were not returned as of press time.
Swiss authorities have confirmed a case of hantavirus in a passenger who had been aboard the MV Hondius but disembarked on St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“There were people who left the boat as part of a scheduled disembarkment,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, PhD, told MedPage Today in a phone call. “They weren’t evacuated, but they got off because that was their stop. But there could be crossover between when the virus was on board and they were on board.”
The WHO said in a social media post that it is “working with relevant countries to support international contact tracing, to ensure that those potentially exposed are monitored and that any further disease spread is limited.”
“We are in contact with the U.S. and we want the American people to be safe,” Ghebreyesus told MedPage Today. “We have no issues. Regardless of the administration, we serve humanity. We support the American people and we care.”
WHO has confirmed that the hantavirus involved is the Andes virus, which has been shown in the literature to be able to, in some instances, transmit human-to-human.
The global health body said at this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.
If the American passengers seek medical care in the U.S., hospitals should be prepared to receive them and take appropriate precautions, sources said.
The CDC also has stood up an incident management response, as would be typical for an event like this. Official media requests to HHS, the CDC, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response have gone unreturned as of press time.
There are now a total of eight cases of hantavirus tied to the outbreak, and five have been confirmed, with three deaths.
Three passengers were medically evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, and were being brought to the Netherlands for treatment, where ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions is headquartered.
One of those passengers is the ship’s doctor, according to the Spanish health minister, which was confirmed to MedPage Today by Oceanwide Expeditions. He is in stable condition.
Health officials are also trying to trace more than 80 people who were on the same flight as a passenger who disembarked the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa, according to news reports. A 69-year-old woman fell ill during the flight and subsequently died on April 26. Her husband was the first hantavirus death aboard the ship, on April 11.
Jeremy Faust, MD, and Cheryl Clark contributed reporting to this story.
Source link : https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/121146
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Publish date : 2026-05-06 20:19:00
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