90-Second Read: Could Hantavirus spread like COVID-19?

As health officials continue monitoring a Hantavirus outbreak tied to the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, many people are asking the same question: Could this spread more broadly? The outbreak involves the Andes strain, a rare form of the virus that can spread between people through close contact, though public health officials say the overall risk to the public remains low. There are still unanswered questions about person-to-person spread with this strain, and public health agencies will be following cases closely.

Even so, the situation has stirred memories of the early days of COVID-19, especially as countries coordinate quarantines, monitoring and contact tracing tied to passengers aboard the ship. But the answer that the World Health Organization, CDC and public health experts are giving is that this is not a situation likely to lead to large worldwide spread. Hantavirus is mainly transmitted through close contact with rodents or rodent secretions, and that's probably how the first person on the cruise ship became infected.

There are overtones of COVID and cruise ships that people remember, so naturally people are asking whether this could become something bigger. Cruise ships already have strong sanitation and monitoring programs because they've dealt with infectious disease outbreaks before, particularly norovirus. To put the headlines into perspective, we turned to Stephen Waterman, M.D., MPH, a clinical professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego.