WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offers Hantavirus update.Photo: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has today, May 7, 2026, provided fresh updates during a media briefing, as international health authorities continue responding to the multi-country hantavirus outbreak linked to the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius.
The briefing comes after several days of rapidly evolving developments involving suspected and confirmed cases of the rare Andes strain of hantavirus, which has already been linked to multiple deaths and emergency medical evacuations involving passengers and crew members traveling aboard the vessel.
Tedros Ghebreyesus has confirmed there are currently five confirmed cases of hantavirus, with eight reported cases and three suspected cases.
The Andes strain of hantavirus, which has been found to cause the current outbreak, has limited transmission between humans, as shown in previous outbreaks, usually between people has been associated with close and prolonged contact "particularly among household members, intimate partners and people providing medical care."
"That appears to be the case in the current situation."
While none of the remaining passengers or crew who are still aboard the ship are showing symptoms, they are constantly undergoing testing and assesments.
"It's possible that more cases may be reported. While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low. It also shows why the international health regulations exist and how they work."
"What is most unusual is that we have a transmission on a boat, which I think is the first documented to date with this particular virus," public health officer Anais Legand said, adding "that boat makes it a very specific environment for which we want to make sure that we have a good understanding on how the transmission has happened, and most importantly, to strengthen all the measures that my colleagues developed."
"There is no indication to date that there is something further unusual, but obviously the fact that it happened on a cruise ship with people from different nationalities and is something we haven't seen before."
Answering a question regarding similarities between the two viruses, the WHO answered: "This is not COVID, this is not influenza, it spreads very very differently so there are different precautions that people are taking."
"We are supporting the ships operators in the mitigation measures that they are putting on board and as we've said we are working to have a proper and full disembarkment procedures."
"We had a similar situation in Argentina in 2018 when an asymptomatic individual attended a social gathering, which led to a lot of people getting infected. So we are in a similar situation right now, a cluster in a confined space with close contact."
The WHO further explained that the 2019 outbreak only led to 34 cases.
"Those who develop symptoms, those who go on to develop disease sometimes develop very severe disease, which includes severe respiratory disease," Dr Maria van Kerkhove explained.
"There may be some coughing, there may be some aerosolized procedures that may be done, of course, that's where we would require a higher level of care.
"This is not COVID, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently."
"A step-by-step guidance is being developed to make sure that all passengers and crew members are supported throughout the journey.WHO is coordinating with national authorities to streamline recommendations and guidelines on that", Anais Legand explained.
"There's a lot that's currently being discussed right now. We are working with all of the countries who have nationalities that are on board to discuss the plans for the safe journey of those patients home once they disembark."
The WHO also discussed the current state of the two hantavirus patients treated in a hospital in the Netherlands and the one in ICU in South Africa.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove: "I am very happy to say the patient in South Africa is doing better, and the two patients in the Netherlands we hear are stable. So that is actually very good news".