90-Second Read: Hantavirus Outbreak Reportedly Due To Landfill Tourism

Five Hantavirus cases, three deaths, and a global cruise scare. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention reported fewer than 900 Americans tested positive for Hantavirus infections over a 20-year period, at least one famous case caused the death of Gene Hackman's wife in their New Mexico home. With Hantavirus, ships may seem particularly risky but cases remain incredibly rare. Three passengers on the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius died after contracting the Andes strain of Hantavirus during a recent voyage.

The 2020s trained the travel industry to default to ship-based explanations for cruise outbreaks. The "Andes virus" strain of Hantavirus is not waterborne, not foodborne, and not transmitted via shared surfaces in the way norovirus is. If the landfill theory holds, the ship was not the source of exposure. It's unknown if he died by human-to-human transmission as he was unwell at the time.

The World Health Organization confirmed the cluster on May 7. While health authorities are cautious and treating the disease as serious, widespread infection and health security concerns remain unlikely at this time. Argentine investigators have publicly identified a Ushuaia landfill tour as the likely point of exposure. Several local operators run walking tours that pass through landfill or industrial fringe zones (why?

Recently, the Independent published a story that the landfill visit might have been part of a bird-watching tour. If the Argentine authorities conclude the landfill visit, either for bird watching or otherwise was ground zero, the government will likely step in and halt the offering. The ship was the diagnostic environment, the place where symptoms emerged in close enough quarters that the cluster became visible.