90-Second Read: Experimental Hantavirus drug ships to Europe as US passengers offered home quarantine

Emergency shipments of the experimental antiviral drug favipiravir are on their way to France, the Netherlands, and Spain to treat Hantavirus patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship or run clinical trials, the European Commission (EC) announced yesterday in a news release. The 18 Americans were exposed to the Andes Hantavirus, which can transmit from person to person, as they sailed the South Atlantic this spring. Meanwhile, Wired reports that the Trump administration pulled funding from a center established in 2020 to research zoonotic diseases such as Hantavirus and Ebola in June 2025, a move fueled in part by conspiracy theories. Fujifilm Pharmaceuticals donated 1,400 tablets of favipiravir, which the European Medicines Agency has identified as the most likely candidate to use under clinical-trial or compassionate-use protocols.

Individual European Union (EU) member states will decide how to use the drug. In parallel, the Commission is launching emergency procurement procedures to ensure availability of additional doses in case further cases are confirmed in the coming weeks, thereby strengthening EU's preparedness. A total of 13 cases, including three deaths, have been linked to the ship. Fujifilm donated 1,400 tablets of favipiravir, the most likely candidate for compassionate use or clinical trials in the absence of approved drugs.

They have been quarantined at the University of Nebraska since disembarking in the Canary Islands on May 10. The National Institutes of Health had given the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases about $82 million over five years. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition recommended that vaccines target the LP.8.1 variant but said that XFG, NB.1.8.1, or other variants could also be used. Quarantines and travel bans won't limit the spread of the virus, which spreads through bodily fluids.

The recommendation now goes to the FDA, which is expected to allow vaccine manufacturers to start producing doses for the fall and winter respiratory illness season. Both newly confirmed case-patients are receiving care in Spain. The WHO estimates the case-fatality rate of Bundibugyo at around 40%.