Global race to track down hantavirus cruise ship passengers underway

There were many other birders at the landfill where this couple got it, because there was a rare bird there. These other birders did not go on a cruise. I can look on eBird (bird checklist tracking database) right now and see generally where they're at based on reports they've published. No word on if they're being tracked or contacted even though they were in the same place at the same time and presumably the same spot the couple were in.

Remember the old days of 2019, when the phrase "Avoid it like the plague" still meant something? Good times....

I was thinking along these same lines when I watched "Outbreak". I figured no one would be stupid enough to get sick and then go to the theater, or any public venue knowing they were a walking contagion vector. Man, was I wrong about that. When COVID came along, people went to the theater, to the beach, went to parties, parades, other cities, and other states, simply because they thought they knew better, and didn't want to be told what to do. It's been a few years now, and they STILL complain about what they were told to do back then. Some people are just completely asinine, entitled, and \*\*\*\*\*\*\* stupid.

The whole scene in Community where they're bit but don't think they'll get infected because they're "special" comes to mind: https://youtu.be/pDCY0D_F2gU Everyone thinks they're the exception until it happens to them.

To be fair the WHO infection modeling was actually pretty accurate and accounted for selfish/hostile behaviour dodging qurantines. But even they were blindsided by the acts of people purposefully infecting others and swapping vaccines with saline.

"I'm infected? I REALLY NEED to take a busy economy flight to a busy city RIGHT NOW!"

It's ok according to Trump this a democrat hoax Just like covid was a democrat hoax and the million Americans that died were crisis actors trying to make Trump look bad Lol

Exactly. I'm not worried this will be a full blown pandemic like Covid, but I'm worried that it will be uncontrolled now. It's mainly just stayed in a small area of Argentina. Now we possibly have it on like most continents and I don't believe that agencies will track it down in time to prevent spread. So we'll just have pop ups of hanta virus that is spreadable via humans to humans, all over the globe, and that allows for more opportunities for the virus to multuply and thusly, mutate. I'm scared of 4 years from now when this thing mutates in some random city from India or China or something (sorry y'all, but you have large, densely populated cities), and becomes more spreadable human to human.

Remember that Obama put into place heavy CDC and WHO protocols to ensure there would be better contingency plans. This was done in response to that ebola b****. Trump immediately removed all plans installed by Obama as revenge for the roasting during the white house correspondents dinner. We had plans in place to prevent these things from being unable to be quarantined... but the maga sector thinks removing this is making us and the world great. *does nails*

Yeah, I'm beginning to think that all the zombies in the movies did not actually acquire a taste for human flesh. Instead, they were just pissed off at the people who hadn't gotten infected yet, and we're going around trying to prove to them that everything was just fine. And/or intentionally infecting them out of spite and political identity.

>For the sake of the world can we just get unified clarity on this? Scientist here. Bit of a long explanation but hope this clarifies things a bit: Hantaviruses' long latent periods are actually the reason they are completely different to pandemic-potential viruses like coronaviruses. Many are quoting hantavirus's R₀ (and it possibly being roughly similar to Covid) as if that's the key thing. It's not. Contrary to popular belief, R₀ is not actually the speed of an outbreak. It is the rate at which it grows (the basic reproduction number), i.e. how many people an infected person will successfully infect before they are no longer infectious (either recovered or died). But *how long* it takes for that person to infect others depends on the latent period of the virus (the time from being infected to when you start becoming infectious and can infect others). Covid (original strain) had an R₀ of around 3 and a median latent period of somewhere around 5 days (this did reduce a bit as the pandemic progressed). That meant if you had one person infected with Covid it would take only 3 weeks before you had 100 cases, and 10,000 3 weeks after that (and about half a million 3 weeks after that). That's how Covid spread so incredibly quickly. Average R₀ of hantaviruses is around \~1.2 and even if we take this Andes virus at the upper end previously observed at 2.12, with a median latent period of 18 days it would take *four months* for the outbreak to reach 100 cases. And that is assuming we do nothing in those four months to reduce the R₀ (which we already started to implement <6 weeks after the suspected infection of the first/index patient). Contact tracing is much less of a race for hantavirus than Covid. Furthermore, human-to-human transmission of Andes virus appears to be pretty much only from close contact and the typical infectious period (time from when you start becoming infectious to when you stop) is about one day which again makes contact tracing a lot easier. Whilst it is a little bit debated about the ability for asymptomatic transmission this is currently viewed as a minimal contribution to its spread and even those who believe it could, acknowledge this is only for the ~24h before symptoms start. The fact everyone now exposed is either in quarantine or aware to self isolate actually makes continued spread unlikely (again not saying we don't see a few more sporadic cases but this is not Jan 2020 by any stretch). To put it in perspective, it appears the first patient contracted the disease before boarding back in *March*. The fact it is now May and we only have 7 more cases (only 5 confirmed at this point) should really give people confidence shit is not about to hit the fan like we could already see by Feb 2020. Hantavirus at R₀ = 2.12 and a latent period of 18 days would be expected to cause cases to double approx. every two weeks. (For comparison Covid cases doubled about every 3 days in the UK in the beginning of the outbreak.) Considering it has now been \~6 weeks (3 doublings) since the first person likely got infected in Argentina before departing on 01 Apr that actually fits pretty well with the current 8 cases: 6 confirmed, 2 suspected. (Being generous, it actually fits *perfectly*.) Let's see if there are more than half a dozen to a dozen or so new cases by the end of the next two weeks. Atm there is nothing unusual about the contagiousness of this hantavirus at all. As for the high fatality rate of hantaviruses compared to Covid... With a \~35% (30-40%) infection fatality rate (IFR) for Andes virus (the hantavirus in this outbreak) and \~1% (0.5-1.5%) IFR for original strain Covid, six weeks after your index patient you would expect to see 8 cases with 3 deaths for Andes virus, and \~6,500 cases with 65 deaths with Covid. (It is actually amazing *how* closely this hantavirus outbreak matches what we would expect.) After 12 weeks you would see 31 cases + 11 deaths for Andes virus, and \~100 million cases + 1 million deaths for Covid. Ofc, Covid never got to 1 million deaths that quickly because interventions were taken before 12 weeks that massively reduced the R₀. But the initial exponential growth in cases, hospitalisations, and deaths in countries indicated it very well could have continued and got that high. And even with everything we did do, in the 12 weeks from 01 Feb to 25 Apr 2020, >200,000 people still died from Covid outside of China. We're about 6 weeks in and so far we have 3 deaths. Every single person who has tested positive for hantavirus *got it from the cruise ship*. And of the only two suspected cases (KLM flight attendant and Spanish woman) who potentially got it from outside of the ship (the Dutch woman's second flight from Johannesburg), both have tested negative (though we need to wait a few days for follow-up tests to ensure this isn't a false negative as this is possible testing soon after symptoms appear). Both are reported to have mild symptoms and the hospitalisation was a precaution based on their exposure *not* severity of illness. So atm literally everything is in line with what we know about hantaviruses and (if you know a bit about virology) the idea that this hantavirus could suddenly change to be like Covid after infecting just a dozen or so people with at most a few generations of infections is truly fanciful. If we are really going to be *that* worried we should be focusing on the literal dozens of other viruses that are much more likely to be the next Covid before hantaviruses. For more information on this I would stick to: - Reliable news sources: [BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r8j1l6j0go) and [(US) NPR](https://www.npr.org/2026/05/08/nx-s1-5811917/hantavirus-andres-mvhondius-ship-rodents) - Medical and health authorities/bodies: [UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)](https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2026/05/05/what-is-hantavirus-how-is-it-transmitted-and-what-are-the-symptoms/), [National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC)](https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/news/905/hantavirus-cruise-ship-outbreak), and [European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)](https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/infectious-disease-topics/hantavirus-infection/surveillance-and-updates/andes-hantavirus-outbreak) - and expert scientists: [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)](https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2026/rapid-reaction-should-i-be-worried-about-hantavirus) and [STAT News - Experts d******* pandemic fears from cruise ship hantavirus outbreak](https://archive.ph/iSbAs) Whatever you do please don't get your news from TikTokers or social media as some others have been doing. PS: >they are already working on a vaccine for this, highly concerning if it’s due to how dangerous it is or if big pharma is trying to get a cash grab Moderna first started developing their hantavirus vaccine in 2023, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) started theirs in 2024. Their work obviously has more public attention now but it was not a result of this outbreak. These vaccines won't come to market for at least a year (likely more) and people will have long forgotten about the hantavirus outbreak by then.

Yeah I am reading it doesn't easily spread human to human , but they are also contact tracing? With covid, I saw how some  governments and authorities learnt to downplay the severity in the service of 'economy'. I wish I could trust them to communicate the severity of the situation here, but unfortunately I can't.

Nah, it's been around in humans in argentina for a while apparently, and it didn't cause the apocalypse.

Kills too many of its hosts for it to spread like covid. It might spread a bit but no shits not gonna shut down again or anything like that. Many many more people will die as a % than Covid though

You should be angry at news in general. They used to be (For the most part) set up to provide information to the public. Today theyre just fear mongerers trying to keep you in constant state of outrage and panic so you keep tuned in so they can get their table scraps of ad revenue.

They started working on a vaccine for this last year. Scientists are always working on new things. And health officials are all saying its not going to be a pandemic.

People are inherently selfish pricks.

Yikes. World Cup could be a super spreader event globally

As far as I've heard, it doesn't spread asymptomaticly

Andes virus has an incubation period of 1 to 4 weeks. There are some studies that suggest it could be slightly longer, but the standard incubation period is not 45 to 60 days. The CDC itself says 4 to 42 days. With Andes virus people are generally only infectious if they are symptomatic, and transmission requires prolonged close contact (kissing, sleeping in the same bed, sitting next to one another on a long train ride, etc). Masking and washing your hands theoretically should be more than enough to prevent infection should you ever be exposed. Edit: as an example on difficulty of transmission, the flight attendant who handled a sick passenger (who I believe has since died) has repeatedly tested negative herself.

yeah

That’s because the head of our health services plays in raw sewage and had a brain worm. 

According to this, the 17 Americans being flown back are going directly to the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska. [https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flight-attendant-tests-negative-hantavirus-new-case-suspected-remote-i-rcna344191](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flight-attendant-tests-negative-hantavirus-new-case-suspected-remote-i-rcna344191) Did you see something about that plan changing?

I definitely agree they should be a bit more cautious, but to be realistic here there are over 200 people on that ship and in the span of 39 days only six of them have gotten sick. Even people who handled the sick passengers themselves have not gotten sick. A lot of media outlets are genuinely over playing the risk of the virus becoming a pandemic; it does have a very high mortality rate so that does warrant caution for the passengers of the ship and for people who were in direct prolonged close contact with the infected. But this is not a covid situation. The only way this virus could rapidly spread and become a global pandemic is if people actively try to spread it. It's not a new virus or a new strain.

>The ship made several stops before the virus was identified

They let them go cause they had no symptoms.

Yeah it's really a remote area that honestly should be safe

There were a number of people who left the ship well before they even suspected the virus.

You mean before they even knew anyone was sick? An old man died, as old men do, and they didn’t know there was an issue of hantavirus until his wife got sick traveling home.

hahahaha

I thought the rules were global, no internal us

Because they didn’t even know there was an issue when these people got off the boat. Of course they got off, their trips were over. An old man died. Old men die. That alone is not enough to think a whole cruise needs to be quarantined. His wife left the boat. She got sick on the way home. That is when they found out they were dealing with hantavirus.