90-Second Read: Hantavirus: How it differs from COVID

With memories of the COVID pandemic still fresh in many people's minds, it's understandable that communities are worried about Hantavirus spreading internationally. But there is a significant difference between COVID and Hantavirus. An analysis of a Hantavirus outbreak in Argentina in November 2018 indicates just how effectively even basic control measures, such as social distancing, slow the spread of infection from person to person. In 2018-2019, the Andes virus Hantavirus spread person-to-person in Argentina.

Hantavirus, on the other hand, has been known since 1993. And because it is known to cause a lung infection called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), appropriate distancing measures were put in place on the ship, once laboratory tests confirmed it had caused the first two deaths. After the first person died on April 11, Oceanwide Expeditions, which runs the ship, said it was May 4, more than three weeks, before Hantavirus was confirmed as the cause of death. Analysis of that outbreak shows the current one can also be stopped.

From there, passengers and crew (a total 147 people) were to be repatriated to their home countries, including Germany, France and Australia. We did not have that knowledge about COVID when it started, in fact, to this day, we still don't know exactly where it started. To play this audio please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 audio Control measures were enforced after authorities confirmed 18 people had been infected with Andes virus at a mass gathering. Despite the understandable concern, Wölfel says a scenario similar to COVID is unlikely.

While the number of known cases, at time of writing on May 11, 2026, is fewer at seven confirmed and two suspected cases, it did take longer for control measures to be enforced. In 2025, the WHO documented 229 cases and 59 deaths in the Americas. This is not comparable to influenza or SARS coronaviruses.