What is the Hantavirus? What to Know After Cruise Ship Outbreak

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]This morning, the cruise ship at the center of the haunt virus outbreak is back on the move, heading towards the Canary Islands, sparking a global race to stop the virus spreading further with contact tracing now underway in multiple countries.

[00:00:16]People who left the ship are being treated for the disease in Switzerland, South Africa, and the Netherlands. Dutch authorities also announcing this morning that a flight attendant has been admitted to the hospital with possible symptoms. She was on the same flight as one of the cruise passengers with haunt virus. That patient was removed from the plane before takeoff and later died.

[00:00:38]According to Dutch media, >> this is not the next co um but it is a serious infectious disease.

[00:00:43]>> While in the US, authorities in Georgia, Arizona, and California confirm they're monitoring residents who were on board the ship and have since returned home.

[00:00:52]So far saying they are not showing symptoms of the virus. Three people were evacuated from the luxury cruise ship yesterday, flown by special air ambulances from Cape Verdie, and three passengers have died so far. This was the moment the captain announced the first death back on April 12th.

[00:01:09]>> This is my sad duty to inform you that one of our passengers sadly passed away last night.

[00:01:19]>> Going on to say the ship was safe. The cruise company responding. At the time of the announcement, no evidence of a virus or contagion was present on the vessel, but the passenger who shot the video tells us something seemed off.

[00:01:33]>> It turns out we were not well informed.

[00:01:36]>> Investigators now hunting for the source of the outbreak. The leading theory, a Dutch couple on the ship who later died contracted the virus while on a bird watching trip in Argentina's southernmost city. Two Argentine officials telling the Associated Press they visited this landfill where they may have been exposed to rodents, catching the rare Andes strain of the virus, which can be transmitted from human to human, causing the outbreak on the ship and triggering alarm worldwide.

[00:02:06]And the Spanish Interior Ministry saying today that the cruise ship is expected to reach the Canary Islands on Sunday and the first of those passengers could be evacuated on Monday, guys.

[00:02:16]>> All right, Ralph, thank you. And we're joined now by public health expert Dr. Ashish Sha, a senior fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School. Dr. Jacqu, good morning. We're always happy to see you, but then again, it also means usually some bad news in terms of infectious disease. So, how worried should we be about this haunt virus outbreak?

[00:02:33]>> Well, first of all, good morning. Thanks for having me back. Um, for the people on the cruise ship, I'm worried. Of course, we've got to make sure that they get uh care. For the broader public, this is not a huge concern. This virus just doesn't spread that easily from person to person. It can happen.

[00:02:47]Obviously, we think it has happened here, but this is not like COVID or flu.

[00:02:51]This is not going to become a major global outbreak.

[00:02:54]>> So, Dr. Ja, what further steps would you expect public health officials around this ship at least to be taking here?

[00:03:00]>> Yeah. So, first of all, obviously, anybody who's infected needs or has any symptoms, they need to be taken care of.

[00:03:04]And that's probably number one. Um, people who were in close contact, those people need to be monitored very, very closely. We got to track down everybody who left the cruise ship and figure out where they are. Make sure that we're monitoring them. If they develop any symptoms, then they got to get isolated.

[00:03:18]So, this is kind of oldfashioned epi epidemiology. We can do it. And if we do that, I'm pretty confident we're going to contain this thing.

[00:03:24]>> Doc, what is the strain of Hannah virus?

[00:03:26]Do we know?

[00:03:27]>> Yeah, we do. So, as of yesterday, we know it's the Andy strain. Thing about haunt virus is it almost always just comes from rodents. It doesn't spread from person to person except the Andy strain. This is a strain found in South America and that's what we have identified and that's why we think it probably is spreading a little bit from person to person.

[00:03:44]>> Could it mutate into something more dangerous?

[00:03:46]>> I I look we have not seen that. We've known about this virus for probably six decades. Uh we have not seen that. I have no reason to believe now. Anything can happen but I'm not particularly worried about that.

[00:03:55]>> What do you make of this report this morning that a flight attendant uh who had an interaction with one of the cruise ship passengers may have contracted it? Um, again, you know, what we know about the Andy strain is that the way it spread happens is prolonged contact sharing like a bedroom with somebody or or really spending hours with that person. So, it's unlikely that a flight attendant would get it from let's say a passenger obviously if they were in close quarters for a long period of time. So, I'm guessing that it's out of an abundance of caution, but we just don't know right now.

[00:04:25]>> What about the symptoms and how do you treat it? I heard it's flu-l like.

[00:04:27]>> Yeah, this is a problem with most viruses, right? Like you start out with a fever, you get a headache. like that's a common cold or a flu, we don't know.

[00:04:34]So, it only then progresses to something much more serious.

[00:04:37]>> All right, Dr. Good to see you.

[00:04:39]>> Good information. Thank you, Doc.

[00:04:41]>> Hey, thanks for watching and don't forget you can catch the Today Show every morning on NBC or take today when you're on the go. Just follow the Today Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen.