WATCH: CA health officials give update on hantavirus outbreak

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]We'll do our best to answer as many questions as possible in the time that we have. We are looking at about a 245 out. Just want to give you all a heads up there. Um but uh yeah, with that um Dr. Pawn, I'll go ahead and hand things over to you.

[00:00:13]>> Great. Thank you, Robert. Good afternoon, everyone. First, I want to express my sympathy for the passengers and individuals connected to this situation. I can only imagine how hard this has been to experience for the passengers, others possibly exposed, and their loved ones. We appreciate the frustration that comes along with the monitoring and redirecting of travel.

[00:00:33]And we're thankful for their cooperation and support as we navigate this process to ensure that the exposed individuals and others can be assessed and cared for appropriately while protecting their and the public's health.

[00:00:45]CDPH continues to closely coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local public health officials. And we are now aware of four California residents who have been exposed to the Andes Honda virus related to the excuse me MV Honda's cruise ship.

[00:00:59]Our current understanding is all four of these individuals are currently healthy with no symptoms. Two of these have returned to California and two just returned to the Nebraska federal facilities. The risk to the general public in California remains extremely low.

[00:01:16]Three of four California residents were passengers aboard the ship. One passenger disembarked before the outbreak was recognized and returned to California. This person was reported to our department last week and is being monitored by the local public health department where they live. The other two passengers disembarked over the weekend in the Canary Islands and have been flown to Nebraska federal facilities. They are undergoing a health assessment and federal authorities will determine when they can return to California. Our department was just notified over the weekend of a fourth exposed person who was not aboard the MVHandas cruise ship, but was exposed to an ill passenger from the ship on an aircraft in South Africa. The ill-flight passenger was later one of the cases confirmed to have Andy's habirus. This fourth person who spent time on the same aircraft as a confirmed case has also returned to California and is now being monitored by their local health department.

[00:02:12]I also want to emphasize decades of experience in South America managing Andy's haunt virus have shown that it has only been associated with rare humanto human transmission after close and prolonged contact with a sick infected person. That being said, this is a dynamic and evolving investigation and response and we are always learning new things and we may learn more from this unusual outbreak on a small cruise ship. We will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available. And with that, I'm happy to answer your questions.

[00:02:43]>> Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Pon. Um, so, as I mentioned, the Q&A function um should be open, so please feel free to submit your questions there. Um, or if you'd like to go ahead and raise your hand, we'll do our best to kind of get around and call on you um for questions that way. I do want to start, Dr. Pal, with a question that we've received from a lot of a lot of people. um if you could kind of let us know when was CDPH first notified that there was a California resident on this ship um and kind of walk us through that timeline a little bit if you're able to please.

[00:03:11]>> Sure. Uh over last weekend uh we did hear about the just overall the MVHandas outbreak via our global outbreak alert response network from the World Health Organization which is another great uh reason that we had joined that network.

[00:03:24]And then on May 5th, our department was notified by the CDC that we had a California resident um that had been that we had at least two California residents that had been aboard the ship and behonds. On May 8th, we announced that one California resident was aboard the ship, had returned to the state, and was being monitored by their local health department, and at least one more California resident was still aboard. On May 9th, we were notified of an additional contact, the one I mentioned that was on a flight, a shared flight with one of the illconfirmed cases who is now back in California being monitored by their local health department. And then uh May 10th, two California residents have been evacuated from the ship by federal authorities to this medical facility in Nebraska. And then here we are today issuing this uh media um availability and press conference and our news release will be out shortly.

[00:04:15]>> Great. Thank you. Um, we do have a question. I don't have a name attached to this, but it's from the San Francisco Chronicle. Um, wondering if there's any known cases of Andes Hivirus in California. Um, so it looks like they say beyond the one California resident, but I don't believe the one California resident had it. So, has there ever been a case of Andesto virus in California?

[00:04:34]>> All of the havirus cases in California have been a different kind of haunt. Uh it's called the cenomery hunto virus and it's actually has a different uh deer mouse vector. So no, there have been no Andes hivirus uh cases here in California.

[00:04:52]>> Awesome. Um and just a note uh for the media submitting questions in the Q&A, if you could put your your name and your outlet as well with your question, that's that's helpful for us in identifying you. Appreciate that. Um let's see here.

[00:05:06]Um, yeah, I'm seeing just a bunch of a bunch of names without outlets and outlets without names. So, I'm hoping that we get some um so we can identify them properly. Um, let's see here. It looks like um we'll start with uh I think it's Shea Khalil with BBC uh is asking there's two California residents currently in the state. Are they both quarantining? How are they being monitored?

[00:05:30]>> Sure. So again, one California resident who has returned was a passenger on the ship and the other one was exposed very briefly on a flight with an ill case. Uh both of them are being monitored by their local health departments at home and they're uh doing modified activities in alignment with our Centers for Disease Control uh guidance as well. Uh so they are limiting activities outside the home. They're doing daily temperatures and in contact with their local health departments.

[00:05:57]>> Awesome. Thank you. Um we have another question here from Madison Hulcom from the Shasta Scout. Um are we able to inform or share uh the counties of residents for these these California residents?

[00:06:11]>> Yes. Uh so the one of them is in Santa Clara County and one of them is in Sacramento County.

[00:06:17]>> Great. So when you say their local health uh local health jurisdictions are monitoring them, that's Santa Clara public health and Sacramento public health. Yes.

[00:06:24]>> Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's a question that we're seeing a lot as well. Um, go ahead and get another question here if we can.

[00:06:34]Um, see, uh, if you could clarify, um, the the person, the Santa Clara County resident, um, are they one of the initial three or are they the fourth person? Did they fly back commercial? Um, how did that how did that work out?

[00:06:53]So, the first one we were notified earlier last week was Santa CL County and then the more recent one over the weekend who was on the uh flight was uh Sacramento County.

[00:07:04]>> Okay. And we've got one from Rachel Bluth from Politico. Um are all individuals being tested? If not, why not? Um and then she has a question she'd like to ask a lot. So, we'll go to Rachel in a little bit for that, too. Um but yeah, are are all people being tested? If not, why not?

[00:07:19]So currently and in general this is not a disease where you test for it if you don't have symptoms. So uh there's no recommendation to test individuals unless they have symptoms and I think because the symptoms are certainly you know we can talk briefly about that too.

[00:07:32]Some of the early symptoms of hunto virus can certainly be very non-specific like a flu-l like illness, fever is one of the things we'd be most concerned about but any kind of muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or certainly any respiratory symptoms, progressive or worsening cough. So if any of those symptoms develop then those individuals be tested but that is again consistent guidance currently um from our colleagues uh at the CDC and elsewhere.

[00:07:57]>> Thank you. Um I do want to go take a live question now. We've got uh I think Janna Katsuyama with KTVU Fox 2. Um Janna, you can go ahead and unmute yourself >> there. Can you hear me? I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. And very quickly, you mentioned that the airline passenger was the fourth person that you were contacted. Is it possible that that airline passenger could have infected others? And if so, what's being done to investigate?

[00:08:30]>> So, the the person who was ill on the plane flight was the person who was infectious. And then anyone who is basically within a certain radius basically about two seats in front of around behind has been notified. And of course this was an international flight.

[00:08:45]So there are people from different countries. So the individual we have here now in California is one of those individuals who currently has no symptoms has you know no signs of infection and had a very brief exposure um on that flight.

[00:08:59]And the person I should also say because this has sort of been known in the global media as well. Um the individual did actually did not actually stay on the flight who became a confirmed case later. Uh that person was taken off the flight before the flight took off who was ill.

[00:09:17]>> Great. Thank you. Um this is a question >> being quarantined. uh the person who had the exposure given the long um incubation period that could be up to eight weeks, is that person being asked to quarantine as well?

[00:09:30]>> The Yes, this person is is um being monitored by their local health department and they're having daily temperature checks, assessment for symptoms um through that 42-day period and direction to modify activities.

[00:09:44]>> Great. Thank you, Dr. Pon. Uh thank you, Jonah. Um we are seeing this question from a couple of you. So, uh Dr. Dr. P, if you could just kind of speak very plainly about how concerned should California residents be about potential exposure or spread. I know this is kind of a top top of mind level question for everybody.

[00:09:59]>> Sure. Yes. I thanks for for asking us.

[00:10:02]The the risk to the general public is extremely low right now and in general this virus uh and the one we have in California is not known to spread person to person. This South American version, this Andes henta virus has been rarely shown to be associated with some rare personto person transmission and typically it is very close contact like people who live together, couples um or other things like that. And we are learning more and more about this cruise ship outbreak which is certainly concerning and unique, but it's a relatively small cruise ship with very close quarters. So that certainly seems like a lot of close contact has actually happened on that ship. Uh and we only have two individuals in our entire state who are actually here who have no symptoms. They're being monitored daily by their local health departments and we're they and local health departments are making sure that they uh if they have any symptoms that they would quickly be seen and assessed. Actually, I can also add that we in preparation for this, as we first heard about the situation and knew we might have people coming back to California, we've met with the appropriate healthcare providers and transport providers in those areas to make sure they're ready to do appropriate assessment and care and take care of their health care professionals with the appropriate personal protective equipment, too.

[00:11:15]>> Great. Thank you. Um, I want to go now to uh Rachel Bluth of Politico um has a question she likes to she'd like to ask as well.

[00:11:22]>> Great. Thanks so much, Dr. Han and everybody. Um, uh, one quick followup and then a a a new question. Um, I think one of the Americans who has tested positive was asymptomatic. Can you get into a little bit more about why why we're not testing asymptomatic people? I know you said that that's not the guidance, but can you can you get into a little bit more why? And then I have one more question.

[00:11:47]>> Sure. In general with this disease, our understanding is that you don't test positive until you have illness. And I am not sure about that detail and admit I've also been on a few calls today and heard mixed things about whether or not that person had symptoms. So I would defer to um to the facility where that individual is and our federal partners.

[00:12:07]Uh but in general again we we don't think people are positive test by testing if they are not infected yet.

[00:12:14]>> Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then I know you said that risk is very low right now to Californians. Um the state is about to host a lot of international travelers because the World Cup. Um can you talk about any of your preparation for that event and if this outbreak has impacted that at all?

[00:12:33]>> Sure. We've been doing a lot of preparation uh for the World Cup events coming and we're hoping that'll be a nice preparation as well for the Olympics in 2028. Uh there are a lot of local, state, federal partners working uh together to at this point have, you know, frequent meetings uh to plan for these events, plan for where the actual matches are, where the campsites are, where the the players are going to be, and working on early detection systems as well for any kind of uh potential public health threats, including things like heat illness and and other things like that. Uh so far this uh situation with this cruise ship Andy's honorus outbreak has not impacted our World Cup planning.

[00:13:17]>> Awesome. Thank you. Um a question from the chat, Molly McCrae with KPIX. The California patients that are still California residents that are still in Nebraska, are they symptomatic? Do we know? Our understanding is that currently uh all of the people we are aware of as far as California residents, whether they're here or in Nebraska, are currently asymptomatic and well.

[00:13:40]>> Awesome. Thank you. Um see, we've got another We're going to go to uh Alex Silverman. Um if you want to go ahead and ask your question here in the chat or uh over the sorry over the audio.

[00:13:52]There have been some mixed messages about whether the passengers who are in Nebraska will need to quarantine for the entire potential incubation period. Have you been given any indication from CDC on what the state of play is there? And additionally, can you be more specific about the the modified activity for the people in California? That sounds like it's not full isolation. So, what what are those people being advised to not do?

[00:14:16]>> Sure. So, for your first question, I think we are also still awaiting some final determinations. I think my understanding from our briefings are that they are doing some initial assessments of those individuals that just literally got to Nebraska and then we will hear more about uh plans. I do understand um when they are ready to bring them back to uh to their home states that they will be on non-commercial aircraft and arrangements will be made. And then your other question about public health monitoring.

[00:14:44]So the CDC recommendations currently have things like limiting activities outside the home um to those that are essential. So really delaying any non-essential medical or dental appointments um and then if there is any urgent or necessary care to make sure there's notification in advance of the health care providers, minimizing any close or prolonged interaction with others. And then if it is necessary to be around others in any indoor spaces to practice good hand hygiene, wear a well-fitting respirator or mask and maintain distance if possible and ensure good ventilation. And they're not to share a bed with someone else. They should not share personal items like towels, bed, linens, clothing. Um they should not share food out of the same plate with anyone else um or share beverages. They shouldn't attend social events. And they should not visit any crowded venues.

[00:15:34]>> Awesome. Um, we asked for some clarification about the the first California resident, the one in Santa Clara County who came back early. Is that correct? Can you kind of clarify that process a little bit?

[00:15:46]>> So, there were uh several passengers, not just our California resident who disembarked this cruise before the outbreak was even identified. And then later once we all sort of collectively knew that there was this outbreak happening uh there was sort of collaboration with the World Health Organization, the CDC and then state health officials to get notifications of passengers that had returned that had been on board the ship with some of the cases but um before the outbreak was identified. So that's how the notifications happened.

[00:16:14]>> Awesome. Thank you. Um want to go uh Katherine Hoe if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself and ask your question. Kathern Ho with San Francisco Chronicle. I if the Andes virus only rarely spreads person to person, how did the person that fourth person who got infected on the flight get it from what sounds like a brief exposure to an infected person?

[00:16:38]>> So I want to be really clear. We have no cases from California residents. There are no infected people. There are people who may have been exposed. So three people were on the same cruise ship as the cases. There are eight cases. None of them are California residents. And then the fourth person who I identified was a contact very briefly on a flight.

[00:16:57]So out of an abundance of caution uh across the the world, we are really trying to make sure we're monitoring people who might have had contact. So this individual was very briefly on a aircraft um but not a full flight within a row of the case who was later confirmed to have haunt virus.

[00:17:17]So that fourth person, is that considered a confirmed case or no?

[00:17:23]>> There are no confirmed cases in California residents. There are potentially exposed what we call contacts. So again, three people who were on the ship who were potentially exposed on the ship. We call those contacts. And then the fourth person was a potentially exposed on a flight and a contact. There are no confirmed cases in California.

[00:17:44]>> Thank you. Sure.

[00:17:46]>> Great. Thank you. Um, and just to kind of again clarify, I think we've already touched on this a little bit, but the two California residents, the two exposed, possibly exposed contacts in California currently, uh, are they isolating at home?

[00:17:58]>> Yes, they are at home with these modified activities that I described.

[00:18:02]>> Great. Thank you. Um, let's see here.

[00:18:06]Um, I'm not sure if we know this, Dr. Pon. Um, but we're being asked a couple of times about the two California residents who are still in Nebraska. Do we know where in California or we are we able to share that at this time?

[00:18:18]>> We're not sharing that at this time, but I just want to again reassure people. We do understand that they are currently healthy with no symptoms.

[00:18:25]>> Great. Thank you. Um there was one question back up here. Um is there any um I'm not sure if this is supposed I think this is supposed to be PPE. Is there any PPE for HANA virus?

[00:18:36]>> Yes, there are healthcare infection control precautions. uh and uh those are in uh the United States to use uh airborne infection control and wear a respirator especially because sometimes when someone is actually ill and or there's aerosol generating procedures that that could be a higher risk uh situation. So yes, there are clear infection control precautions for healthcare providers. And again, we've really alerted and just sent out another health uh advisory today to our healthcare providers and hospitals, but we've worked with the hospitals in the areas with the two contacts that are in California currently that may have been exposed in case they do develop symptoms that they are prepared to do uh transportation andor assessment uh with the appropriate infection control precautions.

[00:19:21]>> Great. And I actually mix mixed up my acronyms. Um they were actually asking if there's any post-exposure prophylaxis so any PEP um for haunt virus.

[00:19:30]>> Oh well I will start with saying unfortunately there is no treatment for haunt virus. It is really supportive care only. So there are no antivirals that work for haunt virus. Uh so thus no postexposure prophylaxis.

[00:19:44]>> Great. Thank you. Um scrolling back here through to see if uh there's any questions that I missed in the chat that we want to get to. There are a couple of hands still up. Um, let's go ahead. Uh, Lauren Lauren Weber, go ahead and you can unmute yourself and ask your question, please, with your name and your outlet, uh, and your question.

[00:20:00]>> Yeah. Hi, this is Lauren Weber. I'm a Washington Post reporter here. I I I wanted to better understand all these questions around quote unquote prolonged contact. Um, you know, you mentioned that airline passenger, I think, was was close by in the Rose. Could you could you specify how close they were? What prolonged contact means in this situation? I know it's a cruise ship so people are close by and an airplane people are close by. Can you but can you give us a little bit more um clarity on on what that entails?

[00:20:29]>> Sure. We are following some guidelines um that both the Centers for Disease Control and it's aligned with the World Health Organization's guidelines about how we decide who we're going to sort of follow and notify um if they've potentially been exposed. So for airline flights, the current recommendation is within two seats of a person who was ill on a aircraft or a flight. So if they are within two seats on either side or a row ahead or a row behind um and for at least 15 minutes is sort of the current guidelines we're using. I want to emphasize something too that we come up with these guidelines because again it helps us implement them and helps us understand who are we going to contact, who we're going to notify, who are we going to monitor. Um, but all of these diseases uh have a different spectrum and there's a lot of different factors that always go into play as far as the risk of exposure. So it could be again the the highest risk is some direct exposure to bodily fluids. Um, but so a lot of what we're doing uh collectively is again to be very cautious because of the seriousness of the actual infection once you're infected to make sure we're really cautiously following these individuals and making sure if they do develop symptoms we can get them appropriate care.

[00:21:39]Thank you.

[00:21:40]>> Sure.

[00:21:42]Um >> I have another question here. Uh this is from Pen Huang with NPR. Uh is California coordinating with other affected states regarding honto virus uh patients or or or potentially exposed contacts? If so, uh we are we able to say which states and how we're working with them?

[00:22:01]Uh I want to actually thank a lot of our CDC uh career scientists and subject matter experts as well who actually have been briefing us all week. They've been on many many calls with us and the other states that are impacted and uh really some amazing subject matter experts that we are working with at the CDC. I don't have the the list of the states um at our fingertips, but uh I know many other states have also been doing either notifications or press releases and I would defer to my federal colleagues to uh to mention which other states. Uh but we are working closely. We have all been um at many different levels of public health, local, state, national, international have been on a lot of calls over the last week um to coordinate um information sharing both on calls, webinars, uh emails. So, yes, there's been a lot of great coordination happening.

[00:22:50]>> Great. Thank you. Um, I want to go, uh, Dan, go ahead and have you ask your question if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself again, your name, your outlet, and your question, please.

[00:22:58]>> Yes, Dan Kerman at Kownfor News. Uh, just wanted to find out, so just to be clear, you know, everybody is concerned that this is the next CO. Can you just sort of lay it out why this is not as infectious as CO and also to be clear that uh if if the two California residents flew back flew back commercial uh are you saying that they did not expose anybody because uh they did not have symptoms and you and and you can't expose others unless you have symptoms.

[00:23:31]>> Yeah, thank you. So some key differences between COVID and this current situation and I recognize that there's a lot that feels hearkens back to but they're very different situations. So first of all this virus haunt virus there again is decades of experience in South America with this particular virus whereas when co 19 when we first heard about those cruise ship outbreaks with co 19 it was a brand new virus that we were all still learning rapidly about and also what we do know about the anti hanta virus is that you there have been no documented infections to people without people being ill already. So to answer your other question, if you are a contact and you are flying and you have no symptoms, you are not infected and you are not infecting anyone else. So you really can only all of our knowledge to date shows that in order to infect other people, you have to be ill. You have to have symptoms. So there's no concern that sort of a contact of a contact could infect other people.

[00:24:32]>> Great. Thank you for that, Dr. Pon. Um, another question we have here, uh, does California currently have sufficient resources and response capacity in place in case there are cases that are identified or if the situation escalates?

[00:24:44]>> Sure. Again, we've actually worked closely with um with our sort of hospitals nearby and we're thankful that in California we have uh I'm forgetting actually the other acronym, but we have actually a a high consequence pathogen center in California. So we have places in California that are ready and prepared and have dealt with we have hospitals here that have dealt with synomere haunt virus as well in the past. So one of the main things too that uh a hospital needs to be able to do is something called extra corprial membrane oxygenation or the easier way to describe that is lung heart bypass. So often these uh patients can get so critically ill with their uh pulmonary and lung symptoms that they need heart lung bypass. So, we do want to make sure that someone could get seen in a place that uh could offer that if they do get that ill. And we do have those facilities in California.

[00:25:34]Right. Thank you, Dr. Palm. Um I've only got a couple of repeat hands that are still up. Um so, we'll start going back to some of them, but again, want to give people a chance if they have questions to to get those in through the Q&A. Um or uh or again, raise your hand if you're interested. So, first we'll go back to Rachel with Politico. So, Rachel, go ahead and feel free to unmute yourself.

[00:25:52]Thanks for coming back to me. Um, I wanted to talk about local health um, resources and sort of how you would uh, if you think local health jurisdictions are properly resourced right now. Um, the CDC cut some public health funding for the state of California earlier this year and some local health jurisdictions have said that there isn't enough money in the state budget for ongoing disease monitoring that was set up during the pandemic. Um what are you hearing from local health departments right now and you know do they feel like they have enough resources?

[00:26:27]>> That is a great question. Uh we are working again closely with our local health departments and I think together we you know will prior prioritize when we need to uh for these kinds of incidents and responses. I think we are always in public health like we could use more resources. We already um uh you know often feel like our public health infrastructure really could use more shoring up and we feel comfortable that we can prioritize these responses. We can stand up. We've had you know calls with our local health departments and and our other role at the state health department is to provide technical assistance and support for our local health departments as well.

[00:27:05]>> Great. Thank you. Um we do have another question from the chat. This is from Molly McCrae with KPIX. Um, just to confirm, there's four California residents that were that were following.

[00:27:14]Um, three of them were on the ship, one was on the flight. Um, is that is that the total number? There were only three California residents on the ship.

[00:27:22]>> That's correct. That's our understanding.

[00:27:24]>> Great. Um, and then are we able to clarify a little more specifically? I don't know if this is possible or not, but prolonged exposure. Do we know like what the minimum amount of time is that you need to spend with somebody who's showing symptoms? Is there any kind of data that we can go look at for that?

[00:27:42]>> So, backing into what I was saying before, the definitions we're using currently are at least 15 minutes, but certainly in general, you know, when you look at published outbreaks of uh and they're rare, but there have been published outbreaks of this Andes virus.

[00:27:57]It really has been couples or healthc care providers who are taking care of very ill patients. And you know, my assumption is without the appropriate personal protective equipment, but really, you know, household contacts, living with each other, intimate with each other potentially, um, sharing direct bodily fluids is really certainly high risk. Um, and we're doing a lot of this other close monitoring just to be absolutely uh, cautious. And because we're learning something about this unique situation that was on this cruise ship, which our understanding is it was a very, you know, smaller much smaller cruise ship than what we often envision with these large cruises and uh really a lot of interactions and activities that were a close contact with each other, but we'll we'll be learning more over time.

[00:28:41]>> Great. Um, another question in the chat that we have from Kathleen with Bay City News Service. Can you speak a little bit just about how the Andes Hirus is different from the synre virus in terms of transmission?

[00:28:52]It's essentially uh this element that the cenomery hunt that we see in North America and here in California in sort of our um Sierras and other regions the cenomery hunter virus has never been shown to have any human to human transmission whereas the Andes hentivirus has had these rare situations where they've had humanto human transmission otherwise the the syndromes are very similar they can cause like a pulmonary syndrome uh causing severe uh sort of systemic disease Great. Um, and we're going to go ahead and do one more. Um, so Katherine Ho again with SF Chronicle in the chat. Um, Katherine, if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself, >> I'm sorry, I meant to lower my hand.

[00:29:33]Sorry.

[00:29:33]>> Oh, okay. Uh, well then last question.

[00:29:36]Uh, we'll go with Jana then. Uh, Jana Katyama.

[00:29:42]>> Oh, I think you answered my question earlier. Thank you though.

[00:29:46]>> There you go. Well, then we had our last question without realizing it. So, I want to thank um everybody for attending. I really want to thank Dr. Pawn um for your time. Dr. Tran, thank you for joining us. I know we didn't really have any lab questions, but if there are other questions that anybody does have um for Dr. Pawn or for for Dr. TR or for CD for CDPH in general, please reach out to us um at our media email address. That's media cdph.ca.gov.

[00:30:10]Um again, media cdph.ca.gov.

[00:30:13]Um, this briefing was recorded.