Exclusive Deals On Christophe Robin, Cleanlogic and More From Our Summer Boxes
Scott Stump
Maura Hohman
Assistant Managing Editor
Some 36 people across the United States have been exposed to hantavirus due to the recent outbreak on a cruise ship, which involves the only known strain of the virus that spreads from person to person, called the Andes strain.
Sixteen of these people, who are former passengers on the cruise, are in quarantine at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Two are at Emory University in Atlanta, and the rest are being monitored in their home states.
Some of the individuals who are being monitored outside of health settings left the cruise in late April prior to its final docking in Spain over the weekend. Others were exposed to cruise passengers infected with hantavirus during air travel.
Only one person at the National Quarantine Unit has tested positive, but none are showing symptoms or have a fever, Dr. Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit, said on TODAY on Wednesday.
The individuals being monitored at Emory include a former passenger who showed mild symptoms and their partner. Neither has tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus, officials said Tuesday.
There are no confirmed Andes virus cases in any of the other passengers in the United States.
It’s unclear how long the former passengers on the cruise ship will remain in quarantine, Wadman said. They are being monitored twice a day for symptoms and elevated temperatures. Some may be able to leave early and self-isolate at home, but it’s unclear when this may be.
The recommendation from the World Health Organization is that the passengers remain in quarantine for 42 days, the length of the virus’s incubation period.
At this time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “The risk of a pandemic caused by this outbreak and the overall risk to the American public and travelers remains extremely low.”
Here’s what to know about the spread of the illness and where it’s being monitored in the United States.
The evacuation efforts of the passengers and many crew members has been completed as of Wednesday. Many have been taken to isolation facilities in their home counrtries, which include the United States, Spain, France, Ireland, the U.K., Turkey, the Netherlands, Canada and more.
So far, there have been 11 cases of hantavirus, including three deaths, related to the cruise, according to WHO. However, this number could rise, as the virus has an incubation period of up to six weeks, health officials warn. Some 150 people were exposed to the virus on the cruise ship.
As a result, health authorities around the world are monitoring these passengers to prevent further spread. Suspected and confirmed cases have only been reported in people who were on the ship, the WHO said. One French patient is on life support due to life-threatening heart and lung problems.
“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.”
The outbreak is of the rare Andes strain of the virus, which is the only type of hantavirus known to spread from human to human. Hantavirus is mainly spread from rodents to humans.
The cruise originally left from Ushaia, Argentina, on April 1 and made a stop at Tristan de Cunha on April 15 and then St. Helena on April 24, according to the cruise’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions.
The WHO investigation as to how the virus made its way on to the ship is ongoing.
The 36 people in the United States who have been exposed to the hantavirus are being monitored in several states around the U.S.
Majority of the passengers who disembarked the ship on Sunday, including the passenger who tested positive, are in quarantine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Two more are at Emory University in Atlanta.
The passengers who left the cruise early are being monitored in their home states, which include Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Virginia and California. None of these patients have shown symptoms or have tested positive for the hantavirus, authorities said.
Residents of several states have also recently been exposed to hantavirus via air travel and are being monitored at home. These states include Maryland, California, New Jersey and Washington state. Authorities in all states have said the risk to the public remains low.
Those in quarantine in Nebraska may be allowed to leave before the end of the recommended 42-day period and self-isolate at home for the remainder if they do not test positive or show symptoms, authorities said. Some of their home states include New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Oregon.
According to the CDC, there are no confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus, the one implicated in the cruise ship outbreak, in the U.S. However, one former cruise ship passenger in the U.S. has tested positive for hantavirus, and another is showing symptoms.
The rest of the people in the U.S. who’ve been exposed remain asymptomatic. The current risk to the American public from the hantavirus outbreak is “extremely low,” per the CDC.
While hantaviruses are found in the U.S., the Andes strain implicated in the cruise ship outbreak is linked to rodents living in South America, according to the CDC. The rodents that carry the Andes virus have not been found in the U.S., per the CDC.
Hantavirus cases have been previously reported in the U.S. over the years, according to the CDC. Since the CDC began testing for it in 1993 following an outbreak in the Southwest, there were 890 total cases reported through 2023.
A majority of them were located in states in the West and Southwest, with 62% of the cases being contracted by men, per the CDC.
Hantavirus was the cause of death of Betsy Arakawa, the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife.
Hantavirus can cause two distinct types of disease, depending on the strain.
The Andes strain, along with other hantaviruses in the Americas, causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a severe and often fatal respiratory illness, according to the CDC.
Symptoms of HPS can take four to 42 days to appear after exposure, per the CDC.
Early symptoms of HPS include:
After four to 10 days, these flu-like HPS symptoms progress to:
The other illness is called hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and is mostly caused by strains in Europe and Asia.
The sick passengers aboard the Hondius mostly reported flu-like illness and gastrointestinal symptoms, according to the WHO. Some remained mild, and others progressed rapidly to respiratory distress or pneumonia.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLCApple®, Apple logo® and App Store® are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.