INTERNATIONAL health authorities have escalated containment measures following confirmation that one American passenger evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship has tested mildly positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus during repatriation to the United States.
Reuters reported on Monday that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said a second American passenger is also showing mild symptoms consistent with possible infection, although the individual has not yet tested positive.
Both symptomatic passengers are being transported in specialised biocontainment units aboard the evacuation aircraft as part of a large-scale international repatriation operation involving multiple countries.
The two cases mark the first confirmed and suspected infections among the 17 American nationals evacuated from the vessel, which has been linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has already claimed three lives.
The outbreak aboard the luxury expedition cruise ship has triggered emergency health responses across Europe and North America after several passengers and crew members developed symptoms linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, one of the rare variants capable of limited human-to-human transmission.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight people associated with the ship have fallen ill, while six infections have been laboratory confirmed.
A Dutch couple and a German national have died.
The MV Hondius remains anchored near Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where international evacuation and quarantine operations are continuing under close medical supervision.
Passengers have been transported from the vessel via smaller boats before being transferred in sealed vehicles to airports for monitored repatriation flights.
The United States government said the evacuation operation is being coordinated through the State Department, with all American passengers being transported to specialist quarantine and treatment facilities in Nebraska.
Most of the evacuees will be taken to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
The mildly symptomatic passenger who tested positive will instead be transferred to a separate high-containment treatment facility.
The HHS said all passengers will undergo full clinical assessment upon arrival and receive treatment based on their medical condition.
Health authorities have repeatedly stressed that the risk to the wider public remains low despite the growing international attention surrounding the outbreak.
Hantaviruses are primarily spread through contact with rodent urine, saliva and droppings, although the Andes strain has previously demonstrated rare person-to-person transmission through prolonged close contact.
The WHO said the current leading theory is that the outbreak may have originated with a Dutch couple who had travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a birdwatching trip before boarding the vessel.
The couple reportedly visited areas inhabited by rodent species known to carry the virus.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to reassure the public during the evacuation operation in Tenerife.
“The risk to the public is low,” he said.
“They shouldn't be scared and they shouldn't panic.”
WHO infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove also emphasised that the virus spreads very differently from highly transmissible respiratory diseases.
“This is not COVID, this is not influenza; it spreads very, very differently,” she said.
The United Kingdom Health Security Agency confirmed that British nationals were among those aboard the vessel and said it was coordinating with the WHO and international health agencies.
Authorities in France, Spain, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, Ireland and the United Kingdom are also monitoring returning passengers and implementing precautionary quarantine measures where necessary.
French authorities previously confirmed that one passenger developed symptoms during a repatriation flight from Tenerife, leading to immediate isolation procedures upon arrival near Paris.
Laboratory analysis by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland confirmed on 6 May that the outbreak strain was Andes hantavirus.
The virus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness that may prove fatal in up to 50 per cent of serious cases, according to WHO estimates.
Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and breathing difficulties, with severe infections requiring intensive respiratory support.
There is currently no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for hantavirus infections, with treatment focused primarily on supportive hospital care and respiratory management.
Health authorities across several countries continue tracing passengers who previously disembarked during earlier stages of the voyage, amid concerns some travellers may have returned home before the outbreak was formally identified. - May 11, 2026
