11 Hantavirus cases linked to MV Hondius cruise ship, experts warn number could rise

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]The number of haunt [snorts] virus uh cases tied to the MV Hondaest cruise ship is now 11. That is according to the World Health Organization's director general. He says nine of the cases are confirmed and two are probable with all people impacted under medical supervision. International health officials say there's no sign of a larger honor outbreak right now, but experts warn that number could go up because of the virus 42day incubation period. This story has developing or has been developing for over a month now and concern has certainly been growing along with it. Here to talk to us more in depth about the virus itself is 9 News medical expert Dr. Kyle Kohley. Dr. Coley, thanks for being here. First and foremost, what can you tell us about the haunt virus and is it does it surprise you because from what I read it's supposed to be spread from rodent to rodent but this is human to human.

[00:00:51]>> Yeah, so usually it's rodent to human.

[00:00:53]Hunter virus has been around for decades. In fact, Colorado is one of the first states in 1993 at the four corners that described the haunt virus pulmonary syndrome where it gets into your lungs.

[00:01:03]So, we've had it around for a long time, ladies. But what's surprising about this particular strain and what's concerning is just like you said, Sam, the human to human transmission that only occurs in the Andes virus strain of Honda virus, which is only found in South America.

[00:01:17]Now, unfortunately, this Dutch couple went off the ship.

[00:01:21]>> Zero, potentially got it from a landfill where they were bird watching. There may have been rodents around, brought it onto the ship, and now it's spreading human to human. And now, of course, some of those Americans with the HANA virus tested positive have already come here to the United States. So, it's here, but not here in Colorado. Thankfully, the human to human strain, the Andes virus.

[00:01:41]Thank goodness because you see a lot of people, and I think, you know, understandably so. We've been through a global pandemic. So a lot of people like, "Oh no, this is going to be co too." I mean, it's terrifying. But let's talk facts, right? This has not arrived in Colorado or anywhere near us.

[00:01:56]>> The Havirus Andy strain is not in Colorado. That is the human to human transmission. The haunt virus sin nombre virus strain, which is the rodent to human, has been in Colorado for decades.

[00:02:09]And so if you're cleaning out a cabin in the mountains that has rodent droppings, you could get that because we have a lot of deer mice here and deer mice are infected with that strain, the the rodent to human strain. But we don't need to worry right now that you're going to walk past somebody at the grocery store and catch haunt virus from them. And I really want us Coloradoatans to turn down the level of anxiety because as you said, Alex, after that pandemic, >> it's stressful to see this again. So, for the people that are concerned, I I guess if they're in an area where they've heard that there may be a case, um, and thank you for kind of just calming, you know, a lot of people's fears right now, but how does it spread from human to human? And I know that I read that 40% mortality rate. Can you give us a little bit more information about infection, symptoms, all of the above? So, we think this is the same Andes virus strain we've dealt with in the past. We've had outbreaks before. So based on that, assuming it's not changed too much, we think it's close contact, usually 15 minutes less than 2 meters.

[00:03:06]Now having said that, in earlier outbreaks we've seen, there was a a person who was infected with haunt virus, Andy's virus strain, went to a birthday party and infected five other people, one that he just walked past. So it's the same sort of pattern as we saw with COVID where we have some people who are these super spreaders who shed like crazy and infect a lot. Now, you're most infectious when you're symptomatic, but you can be infectious even before you become symptomatic. But thankfully, unlike the co virus, which used to spread very efficiently when you're asymptomatic, this spreads [clears throat] most efficiently when you're symptomatic. But usually, it's close contact. So, on the cruise ship, for example, sharing dining utensils, sharing living quarters, like bedrooms, that's going to spread it. Sexual contacts for sure, but we're concerned that it may even come from casual contact based on what we've seen in prior outbreaks.

[00:03:52]>> So, what are the symptoms? Is it like a cold? Is it kind of like you know >> so it starts like a cold then it turns into a flu-l like illness. So muscle aches, fevers, fatigue and within hours to days if it gets into your lungs which this Andes virus can do it can cause the pulmonary syndrome which has that 35 to 40% mortality or risk of dying. Now there's another type of haunt virus that lives in Europe that doesn't get into your lungs but causes bleeding and causes liver failure. We haven't seen that in this particular strain of virus but we're worried about this because we don't have treatments. we don't have vaccines and so really the best key is to make sure we contain the outbreak as best as we can.

[00:04:27]>> So if you were attorney general Dr. Kohley, what would you do? What would you advise us to do right now?

[00:04:31]>> So as the surgeon general, >> surgeon general, sorry about that.

[00:04:34]>> The way to kill [laughter] this outbreak, we will kill it. We will burn it out. If we get every person on that ship to to quarantine for 42 days, the entire incubation period, because if that 42 days goes, they haven't declared themselves, they're not positive. And you could do a PCR test just to confirm.

[00:04:50]But the idea that we're letting people get back to their lives and monitoring them concerns me because then you don't know who you met 42 days ago and if they were asymptomatic and shedding and they infected somebody at the grocery store in the Uber it's going to make it more difficult. Now in general h virus is not one that spreads efficiently. So past outbreaks have burned themselves out and that's why overall we're less concerned but again it's something we have to watch closely because it may be a different version of the virus.

[00:05:16]>> We are out of time but why 42 days? It seems like a long period of time to have to be isolated.

[00:05:20]>> So the incubation period from the time you're exposed to the time that you are showing symptoms and infectious 4 days to 42 days. So that's the longest that you could potentially have been exposed and still not have symptoms. After that you're probably not going to have symptoms if you haven't been exposed.

[00:05:36]>> All right, Dr. Coley, great information.

[00:05:38]Thank you.