Many people’s memories of the COVID-19 pandemic are still vivid, so news of a hantavirus cluster on a cruise ship quickly raised concern. The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledged those worries in a letter to residents of Tenerife on May 9, 2026, as the MV Hondius prepared to dock at Granadilla Port. The ship, where an outbreak of the Andes variant of hantavirus occurred between April and May, has been linked to three deaths and several infections. About 147 passengers and crew were slated for repatriation to countries including Germany, France and Australia.
How hantaviruses differ from SARS-CoV-2
Hantaviruses are a different family of viruses than coronaviruses, and that matters for how they spread and how public health responses work. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, which emerged as a novel pathogen in late 2019 and whose properties were initially unknown, hantaviruses have been recognized for decades — the family was identified in 1993 as a cause of severe lung disease. The Andes virus, responsible for the recent cases on the MV Hondius, is one hantavirus that can, in some situations, be passed from person to person. However, transmission between people is far less frequent and typically requires very close contact.
Because hantavirus is a known pathogen that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), health authorities can use established control measures once a diagnosis is confirmed. Those measures include isolating confirmed cases, advising or enforcing quarantine of close contacts, wearing respiratory protection and limiting contacts — steps that are effective at reducing spread when applied promptly.
What past outbreaks show
A detailed analysis of an Andes virus outbreak in Argentina (2018–2019), published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2020, illustrates how rapidly simple measures can change transmission dynamics. During that event, public health authorities enforced isolation for confirmed cases and recommended self-quarantine for potential contacts after infections were identified at a mass gathering. The investigators estimated the median reproductive number — the average number of secondary infections caused by an infected person — fell from about 2.12 before measures were in place to 0.96 afterward, consistent with curtailed transmission.
Timeline and response on the MV Hondius
The situation on the MV Hondius differed from the Argentine outbreak in two ways: the number of known cases was smaller (as of May 11, 2026, authorities reported seven confirmed and two suspected cases), and public-health controls were not implemented immediately. The first death among people on board occurred on April 11. Hantavirus was not confirmed by laboratory testing until May 4; that confirmation came two days after the WHO had been notified of a cluster of ill individuals on the ship. Once the cause was established and the vessel reached Tenerife, Spanish health teams put extensive precautions in place: passengers, crew and responding personnel used masks and protective suits, personal belongings were transported in sealed bags, and contacts were minimized while arrangements for repatriation proceeded.
Experts and practical precautions
Researchers and infectious disease specialists have said those protective steps are consistent with what is known about Andes virus transmission. The use of filtering facepiece respirators (FFP2), isolation of symptomatic cases, and limiting close contact during disembarkation and transport reduce the chances of onward spread.
Outlook
Public-health authorities and virologists do not expect the Andes virus to behave like influenza or SARS coronaviruses at a global scale. The head of the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Roman Wölfel, has noted that a pandemic scenario similar to COVID-19 is unlikely for Andes virus, given its limited capacity for sustained person-to-person transmission. Hantavirus infections remain relatively uncommon overall: the WHO recorded 229 cases and 59 deaths in the Americas in 2025. There is currently no licensed vaccine for hantavirus infections.
Bottom line
Hantavirus and COVID-19 are very different diseases. Hantavirus has been studied for decades, its severe form (HPS) is recognized, and when confirmed, established containment measures — isolation, quarantine of contacts, respiratory protection and reduced contacts — are effective at slowing transmission. Those factors, together with the virus’s limited propensity for human-to-human spread, mean that current outbreaks are being managed with targeted public-health actions rather than broad, pandemic-style measures.