90-Second Read: How concerned should Seattle cruise passengers be about Hantavirus?

Public Health, Seattle & King County echoed that assessment in a recent public advisory, calling the risk to residents "very low" and noting there have been only six confirmed Hantavirus cases in King County since 1997. Globally, health officials continue monitoring passengers connected to the MV Hondius outbreak, while public health agencies track potential exposures and conduct contact tracing. Greninger said Hantaviruses have been studied for decades, unlike the novel coronavirus that emerged in 2020, and health officials already understand how the virus is typically transmitted and contained.

The county also warned that deer mice can carry Hantavirus in wooded rural and suburban settings, including cabins, garages, sheds, and vehicles. The outbreak, tied to Andes virus cases connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius, has prompted comparisons to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alex Greninger, head of the Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics at the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, said Hantaviruses behave very differently from coronaviruses.

Greninger explained that Washington state already has its own form of Hantavirus, known as Sin Nombre virus, which is typically spread through exposure to rodent droppings or urine, often in cabins, sheds, or rural areas. The Andes virus involved in the cruise ship outbreak is different because it has shown a limited ability to spread between people under close-contact conditions, something not documented with the strain commonly found in the western United States. But infectious disease experts and local public health officials say the similarities largely stop there.