According to NBC News hantavirus was first identified in 1993 in the Four Corners region of the United States. But prior to 1993 the virus was documented in Europe and Asia where they were known to cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a condition that can lead to fever, bleeding complications, and kidney dysfunction.
Public health attention has recently focused on a reported outbreak aboard a cruise ship after multiple passengers and crew members became ill during a voyage. According to ABS CBN and World Health Organization, approximately 88 passengers and 61 crew members.
Tensions grew as a passenger named Jake Rosamarin made a controversial TikTok video pleading his case for all the quarantined families on the cruise. He argued that all the people on the ship had families to get to and that they too are “people” not just statistics.Rosamarin quickly made headlines with this TikTok and retaliatory videos were made by other Tiktok users expressing how they thought the ship should not dock.
Health authorities have linked the cluster of cases to a rare strain of hantavirus known as Andes virus, which is one of the hantaviruses capable of human-to-human transmissions under certain conditions. According to CBS News the cruise ship had gotten hantavirus likely because of a Dutch couple who contracted the virus during a bird-watching trip in Argentina, the 70 year old Dutch man developed symptoms on April 6, 2026 and died on April 11 while the ship was sailing in the South Atlantic. The man's wife who was 69 years old later died and tested positive for the Andes strain of Hantavirus.
According to NBC News the cruise ship was docked on May 18, 2026 in the Netherlands, there were 11 infections and 3 deaths from the rare Andes strain of hantavirus. At the time of the docking only the captain and about 26 crew members remained on board, most passengers were already in quarantine in their home countries or in the Netherlands. The ship was slowly escorted into the port by a tug boat and a Dutch police boat, and the health authorities set up numerous quarantine containers for crew members who could not be repatriated. The disinfection will use chlorine and peroxide and the remaining 27 people on board made up of 25 crew members and 2 medical staff are all asymptomatic and under close medical observation to prevent any further deaths or outbreaks.
On this cruise people started to develop the symptoms 1 to 8 weeks after exposure(CDC). The early symptoms are fatigue, fever, muscles aches that especially happen in thighs, hips, and back, headaches, dizziness, chills, nausea, vomiting diarrhea, and abdominal pains but going to a doctor if feeling any of these is highly recommended so the correct treatment can be applied. The late symptoms which are around 4 to 10 days later can involve coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness due to fluid in the lungs which can be fatal in around 38% of cases.
As of today there are 69 countries that are documented to have hantavirus. But right now there are 6 confirmed hantavirus cases, 2 suspected cases, and 3 deaths globally which is primarily linked to the Andes virus outbreak on the cruise ship (ABS CBN).
Ever since the MV Hondius cruise ship case people have been looking up the hantavirus but it is one, not easy to get, two, not easy to get well from, and three, doesn’t have a cure. Currently people with the Andres variant of Hantavirus are being highly watched and are being taken care of, the people that were on the cruise ship are currently in quarantine.
The Andres variant of Hantavirus isn’t completely understood yet but scientists and world health organizations are trying to figure out a vaccine to bring the death rate down so the survival rate is higher than the death rate.
