Key takeaways:
- A hantavirus outbreak killed three passengers on a cruise ship and sickened several others.
- The CDC released a statement saying its “top priority” is the safety of U.S. passengers.
Infectious disease experts on Thursday criticized U.S. health officials’ response to the hantavirus outbreak that killed three passengers on a cruise ship.
“I’m not overstating this, it is a travesty,” Infectious Diseases Society of America CEO Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, MPH, said in an IDSA press briefing.
According to WHO, three people aboard the MV Hondius have died and at least eight have been sickened by Andes virus, a type of hantavirus found in South America that can be transmitted person to person, but usually only through close contact, the CDC notes. There were 17 Americans onboard among the 147 passengers.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said Thursday that the ship was on its way to the Canary Islands after being anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation in West Africa.
“We’re confident in the capacity of Spain to manage this risk and we’re supporting them to do so,” Tedros told reporters.
On the IDSA call, Marazzo and Healio | Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member Carlos del Rio, MD, discussed what they have gleaned from reports on the outbreak while also expressing concern about what they characterized as a lack of communication from U.S. health officials.
The first report of the outbreak aboard the ship came from WHO, which issued an outbreak alert on Monday and has posted frequent updates on social media, including the confirmation by scientists in South Africa and Switzerland that the illnesses were being cause by Andes virus.
The first public acknowledgement of the outbreak by the CDC appeared to come late Wednesday in a statement posted online and sent to the media that said the agency was “closely monitoring the situation with U.S. travelers onboard” the ship.
The CDC classified the risk to the U.S. public as “extremely low.” WHO also classifies the global risk to be low.
“Our top priority remains the health and safety of all U.S. passengers. The Department of State is leading a coordinated, whole-of-government response including direct contact with passengers, diplomatic coordination, and engagement with domestic and international health authorities,” the CDC said.
The CDC also posted a statement on X from NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, who remains temporarily in charge of the agency. Bhattacharya said the CDC “began coordinating with domestic and international partners as soon as we were notified of a hantavirus situation” and “provided clear, written health guidance to the American passengers through the State Department.”
A CDC official told Healio that the agency “is providing technical input and guidance as requested.” But Marrazzo and de Rio questioned the response.
“There have not been briefings from any U.S. government agencies that we would have expected to occur in a situation like this, including the CDC or NIH,” Marrazzo said.
Del Rio, distinguished professor of medicine and professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory University, said it is “not uncommon” for the CDC to deploy to an outbreak site to provide technical assistance, perform epidemiological tracing and conduct interviews.
“Outbreak investigation is what CDC does and what they do very effectively. So, I would have envisioned that many days ago we would have seen a team from the CDC deployed to the area and we haven’t seen that,” he said. “We also would have had a press briefing from the CDC. The CDC typically would put out something called HAN, the Health Alert Notice, and we haven’t seen a HAN related to this.”
Del Rio continued, “So, a lot of the things that you would like to see, we haven’t seen. And to me, that’s very concerning. The silence that we’re seeing from our premier public health institution is really concerning to me.”
Contacted by Healio, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon did not respond to Marrazzo and del Rio’s claims that the CDC has been unresponsive to the hantavirus outbreak.
Hantavirus spreads to humans through exposure to mouse or rat urine, droppings and saliva, according to the CDC. A bite or scratch from a rodent can also spread the disease, but this is a rare occurrence, the agency noted.
Nearly 40% of people who develop respiratory symptoms related to hantavirus may die from the disease, according to the CDC. In the United States, more than 90% of cases occur west of the Mississippi.
The primary cause of hantavirus illness in the U.S. is the Sin Nombre virus, which, unlike the Andes virus at the center of the current outbreak, is not known to be transmissible between people.
“The risk to the general public is small, but I think the outbreak is an opportunity for us to learn a lot more about the transmission of the virus,” del Rio said.
Meanwhile, Marrazzo said, because of the “huge void right now” in public health communication, the IDSA and other professional societies “will urgently fill that gap.”
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Press Conference
References:
- CDC. (@CDCgov) May 6, 2026. X.
- CDC: Statement on the M/V Hondius cruise ship. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2026-hantavirus-confirmed-cruise-ship.html. Updated May 7, 2026. Accessed May 7, 2026.
- Hantavirus. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hantavirus. Published May 6, 2026. Accessed May 7, 2026.
- Hantavirus cluster linked to cruise ship travel, multi-country. https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2026-DON599. Published May 4, 2026. Accessed May 7, 2026.
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (@DrTedros) May 6, 2026. X.
- World Health Organization. (@WHO) May 7, 2026. X.
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