90-Second Read: Hantavirus cruise: WHO Director-General will travel to Tenerife for disembarkment; repatriation flights planned on Sunday and Monday

A cluster of Hantavirus cases struck the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius as it traveled across the southern Atlantic, stopping at a number of destinations along the way. In the live social media update on Saturday, Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO said plans are in place to disembark the remaining passengers and crew from MV Hondius on Sunday, and that repatriation flights are planned to start transporting people home Sunday and Monday. On May 9, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), shared a message with the residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife, where MV Hondius is anticipated to make port Sunday (May 10). We're tracking the cases of Hantavirus associated with the cruise ship MV Hondius and will bring you updates as they arrive.

In a live social media update on Saturday, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, clarified that the number of confirmed and suspected Hantavirus cases associated with MV Hondius is still eight. Argentina's ministry of health reported on May 5 that there have been 101 confirmed Hantavirus cases since June 2025, according to the Associated Press (AP). The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported 1,885 confirmed cases of Hantavirus infection across 28 European Union/European Economic Area counties in 2023. And now, in retrospect, there is a question: Could it have been Hantavirus?

Elsewhere, the Illinois Department of Public Health has announced it is investigating a potential Hantavirus case in an Illinois resident in Winnebago County. The North American Hantavirus is not the same as the Andes virus implicated in the MV Hondius cluster and does not spread between people. For clarity: People experiencing "symptoms" in this context may well have a different infection; until it's officially confirmed to be Hantavirus, it's not worth getting too worried about. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low.

Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have been working on Hantavirus vaccines since the 1980s, virologist Jay Hooper told Nature News. Genetic material from the confirmed Hantavirus cases is now being sequenced. Wondering about the symptoms of Hantavirus infections or how best to avoid the illnesses?