Health officials track passengers tied to hantavirus-stricken cruise ship

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Now to a small piece of good news after the deadly virus outbreak on that cruise ship. Flight attendant isolated on suspicion of having the virus, we're happy to say is now tested negative.

[00:00:10]Nearly 150 people remain on board the ship in the Atlantic. Dozens more disembark before it was quarantined.

[00:00:16]Now, they are being monitored, but here's the question. Are officials doing enough? Tom Hanson has the latest. Tom, good morning to you.

[00:00:24]Good morning, Gail. This morning at least six people in the US and two dozen from other countries are being monitored for signs of hantavirus after departing the MV Hondius cruise ship a few weeks ago. Now, health officials say so far, those Americans do not report any symptoms.

[00:00:39]It's very much, we hope, under control.

[00:00:42]For the first time Thursday, President Trump addressed the response to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship with more than a dozen Americans on board. There's a lot of great people who are studying it. It should be fine. We hope. Congresswoman Janelle Bynum shared that one of the passengers is an Oregon doctor who has been providing medical support to others on board. In a letter to the State Department and CDC, she wrote the 17 Americans on board, including my constituent, are being abandoned by their government. They have no guidance and no support to ensure their safe return home. This all comes as global health officials are scrambling to track down passengers who departed the MV Hondius weeks ago. The cruise operator says nearly 30 passengers from at least 12 countries, including six Americans, left the ship during one of its first port stops in Saint Helena before the hantavirus was suspected. State authorities say one passenger is now home in Arizona, another in Virginia, two in Georgia, two in Texas, and an unknown number are back in California. Health officials say none of them are showing any symptoms of hantavirus. In Turkey, Ruhi Cenet was one of the passengers who disembarked in Saint Helena, but has stayed in contact with people still on board. They're not In my view, are not scared of the virus itself, but they're just confused about the following days. The cruise ship is set to arrive at the Canary Islands this weekend, but officials there say the cruise liner cannot dock and must remain offshore when it arrives. It's unclear whether the nearly 150 passengers will be forced to remain at sea for up to two months as they wait out the quarantine period.

[00:02:14]And another development this morning, Spanish officials confirming that the US sent a plane with CDC staff to pick up the American passengers stuck on board.

[00:02:23]The World Health Organization says no one on board is currently symptomatic.

[00:02:27]So some good news there, guys. All right, Tom. Thank you very much. So you've been sending all of us all kinds of questions about the hantavirus outbreak. So Dr. Celine Gounder is here to help answer them. She's a CBS News medical correspondent and editor-at-large of public health at KFF News. She's also an expert on infectious diseases. Dr. Gounder, good morning.

[00:02:46]Good to have you here.

[00:02:47]>> All right. So let's talk about this.

[00:02:49]Yesterday you told us that the risk of hantavirus spreading like COVID was pretty low. We got a lot of comments, tons of comments and concerns from our friends on social media. So here's a question from Lori. She asked, is it spread from person to person? Is it airborne? How is that different? And how deadly is it? We got some really good news over the past day about that KLM flight attendant who was aboard the one of the flights where they were evacuating one of the cruise passengers who had hantavirus.

[00:03:20]She had symptoms.

[00:03:22]She tested negative for hantavirus. So those symptoms were from something else.

[00:03:25]And so the reason this is good news is it indicates it confirms what we had thought about this hantavirus Andes virus before, which is it's highly unlikely to spread through casual contact. Uh what we have seen with Andes virus is it yes, it has spread person to person, but that has been in the context of very prolonged close contact. So people who are sexual partners, people sharing a bed. In the largest outbreak of this study, a sexual partners had an 18% risk of acquiring hantavirus Andes virus from their partner, but other household contacts, it was only a 1% risk.

[00:04:02]>> So, not spread airborne the way that COVID was.

[00:04:04]>> Not spread airborne. It really requires that very close contact.

[00:04:07]>> All right. So, many on social media were not thrilled that people were being allowed to return home so quickly. One person said, "Why bring them back to the states?" Another asked, "What do we mean by watching? Should this not be a 2-month quarantine?" And others wanted to know who are the officials monitoring this? So, the CDC has been coordinating with state and local health departments.

[00:04:26]They are monitoring for symptoms, so things like fever, muscle aches, developing respiratory symptoms, trouble breathing would be a warning sign. And because the incubation period is out to 8 weeks, they do have to monitor for a longer period of time. But that said, the risk again of transmission onward is exceedingly low.

[00:04:47]Now, so this is the one question that people have, cruise ships. People want to know, "Did we not learn from COVID that cruises are a bad idea?" Another called them giant petri dishes, pointing out that their cruise friends always return home sick. So, what do people need to know about traveling on cruise ships? Wash your hands. The real risk is norovirus.

[00:05:07]COVID was airborne, so that can even spread through the ventilation. You didn't have to have immediate contact with somebody. This Andes virus, again, requires very close person-to-person contact. Very good advice as always, Dr. Celine Gounder. Thank you very much. And thanks to all of you at home for all those great questions. We appreciate it.