Female Aedes mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) and the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), are observed feeding on human blood in Tehatta, West Bengal, India, on May 01, 2026. These mosquitoes are known to transmit diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. Rising temperatures are contributing to their survival. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(TEXAS) — Texas health officials on Tuesday confirmed the state’s first human West Nile virus case this year, an indication that mosquito season is beginning in the United States.
Public health officials have been warning that rising temperatures have allowed mosquitoes to thrive, increasing the risk of the diseases that they spread, including West Nile.
Last year, the U.S. reported 2,076 cases of West Nile across 47 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Colorado had the highest number of cases (285), followed by Illinois, Texas, Minnesota and California.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said the patient was a resident of Harris County, which includes Houston, but no other information about the patient was made available.
“West Nile and other mosquito-borne illnesses are a fact of life in Texas in the warmer months, and all Texans should take precautions against mosquito bites to stay safe and healthy,” Texas DSHS Commissioner Dr. Jennifer A. Shuford said in a press release. “By removing standing water around the home, people can eliminate mosquito breeding grounds and reduce insect populations in their area.”
Since 1999, West Nile virus has killed about 2,900 Americans, according to the CDC. Cases are typically reported between June and October, historically peaking in August.
The virus is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Risk increases with older age, certain medical conditions — such as cancer, high blood pressure and kidney disease — and a weakened immune system.
Symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea and a rash. Severe illness can affect the central nervous system and result in hospitalization or death, according to the CDC.
There is currently no vaccine that protects against West Nile virus, and preventing mosquito bites is the best way to protect yourself, the CDC says.
No specific treatments are available. Doctors recommend patients rest, drink fluids and take pain medication to help relieve some symptoms. People with severe illness may need to be hospitalized for supportive treatment, according to the CDC.
The CDC says most people infected with West Nile virus are believed to have lifelong immunity. However, some with weakened immune systems or certain conditions may have their immunity wane over time.
Health supplies are seen as healthcare workers receive training on administering the Ebola vaccine in a study carried out with the support of the World Health Organization as part of the fight against the Ebola virus in Kampala, Uganda on February 14, 2025. (Nicholas Kajoba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A deadly Ebola outbreak is continuing to spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, with officials on Tuesday saying there were more than 600 confirmed and suspected cases and more than 100 suspected deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, and at least one American in the DRC has tested positive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Several public health experts told ABC News that while they agree with the CDC that the risk to the U.S. public is currently low, the outbreak is still concerning. They also expressed unease that the U.S. may not be prepared to adequately respond due to cuts to federal health agencies and its withdrawal from the WHO.
The experts noted cases have been found in remote regions of the DRC and Uganda, as well as urban areas, and the outbreak is growing rapidly. They added that although Ebola is a rare disease, it can be highly contagious and can lead to deadly consequences.
“We’re worried that if this outbreak is not contained, that it could spread elsewhere on the continent, which could increase the risk of the virus spreading outside of the African continent,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“Ebola is not as transmissible a virus as, say, a coronavirus … and that’s why I don’t think that this will ever become a pandemic scenario, but it doesn’t have to be a pandemic to be a worrisome situation,” she added.
Americans affected by outbreak
On Monday, the CDC confirmed that least one American in the DRC contracted Ebola while working in the country.
Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, told reporters that the individual developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday, adding that the patient and six other high-risk contacts were being moved to Germany for care and monitoring.
Serge, an international Christian missions organization, confirmed the patient is American medical missionary Dr. Peter Stafford, a board-certified general surgeon with a specialization in burn care, who was serving patients in the eastern DRC.
Pillai did not say if or when the Americans would be returning to the U.S., but experts say, even if the patient and contacts do, the risk level to the public does not change.
“We safely and effectively have [returned affected Americans home] many times before,” Emily Smith, interim chair of the department of global health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, told ABC News. “It’s something we have good experience in and have always safely and effectively done. So, to me, no concerns about doing that.”
Dr. Jesse Goodman, a professor of medicine and infectious disease at Georgetown University and former chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration, said it is encouraging that when countries such as the DRC have experienced outbreaks in the past, they have not progressed to pandemic status.
“I think the most [the U.S.] would see is the kind of limited transmission that we’ve seen in the past because this virus almost always appears that transmission is from people who have symptoms,” he told ABC News. “I think if there are cases that come to this country, I would expect limited transmission and think we have the capability to contain it.”
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, there were two cases of suspected transmission from a patient with Ebola to nurses caring for him. The CDC has established detailed infection prevention and control procedures for health facilities that suspect they have cases of Ebola.
U.S. may not be as connected to the global health community
Even with possible U.S. capability to contain Ebola domestically, the experts who spoke to ABC News said the U.S. is likely at a disadvantage when it comes to responding to several health crises both at home and abroad due to public health capacity cuts.
Last year, the State Department announced it would be taking over programs previously run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency — which oversaw foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs — would no longer be providing assistance to other countries.
In previous Ebola outbreaks, USAID provided millions of dollars and operational support in response, in addition to helping with preparedness activities in neighboring countries.
Additionally, earlier this year, the U.S. officially completed its withdrawal from the WHO, with federal officials saying at the time there are “plans” in place to work with organizations on surveillance, diagnostics and outbreak response to fill in gaps left by exiting the WHO.
Brown University’s Nuzzo said the Ebola outbreak is the kind of situation public health experts warned about as USAID was gutted and the U.S. withdrew from the WHO.
“We warned that the United States would be flying blind, and it would be learning about deadly outbreaks late, and then it would be very difficult for the U.S. to respond because we would have fewer tools to do that,'” Nuzzo said. “The big worry here is that the outbreak wasn’t declared until there were more than 200 suspected cases of the virus and that is very unusual. Usually, we get signals of an outbreak much earlier.”
George Washington University’s Smith concurred, “When we are talking about public health infrastructure and global health infrastructure, we’re in a worse place today than we were two years ago.”
Nuzzo also noted that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an agency within the National Institutes of Health, ended research at its high containment lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland, due to “a safety stand-down” last year.
The lab was one of the few federal facilities studying Ebola and other deadly pathogens, which Nuzzo said could have been useful in understanding the virus and developing therapies for the recent outbreak.
“So now that we have Americans potentially exposed to a virus that’s deadly, for which we have no vaccines or treatments, you can imagine how beneficial it would be to have a laboratory that can conduct world-class research to make sure we develop cures for this,” Nuzzo said. “But we don’t have it. So, we’re basically behind the curve in being ready for this.”
Goodman also said that the U.S. may not be as prepared because Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been actively shifting the department’s focus away from infectious disease management and towards chronic illnesses.
During his confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy argued that too much federal funding has been “devoted” to “infectious disease and to drug development and very little to chronic diseases.”
Goodman argued that there needs to be a focus on infectious diseases because of the threats they may pose to public health.
“I think the message here is these infectious disease, we may be done with them, but they’re not done with us,” he said. “There’s a reason that so many of us work for so many years to be prepared for whatever the next thing is because we don’t know what it is and we just need to be ready.”
Kennedy told ABC News on Monday that his agency is addressing the recent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks.
“Yeah, we’re working on it,” Kennedy replied when asked if he was worried about the outbreaks. Kennedy did not respond when asked what his message might be to Americans who are concerned about the diseases potentially spreading in the U.S.
On Sunday, the State Department issued “Level 4 — Do not travel” advisories for Uganda and the DRC due to the outbreak.
Nuzzo said she’s worried that the U.S. hasn’t built a public health system that acknowledges viral outbreaks as recurring threats, saying the U.S. has been caught off guard with previous incidents such as COVID-19.
“We don’t do that with other recurring hazards you know; we don’t try to build FEMA in the midst of a hurricane,” Nuzzo said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), during a healthcare affordability event in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News on Monday that his agency is working to address the recent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, marking the first time he’s commented publicly on the Ebola outbreak since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed than an American had been infected with the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“Yeah, we’re working on it,” Kennedy told ABC News when asked if he was worried about the outbreaks. The secretary’s comments come after the CDC said a “small number of Americans” are directly affected by the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC.
Kennedy did not respond when asked what his message might be to Americans who are concerned about the diseases potentially spreading in America. He told reporters in the Oval Office last week that the U.S. had the hantavirus outbreak “under control.”
“We have this under control and we’re not worried about it,” he said at the White House’s maternal healthcare event on May 11th. Kennedy also noted that the CDC has been working on the outbreak since day one.
The CDC said there have been no confirmed hantavirus cases in the U.S. linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship and 18 passengers remain under observation at the University of Nebraska.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s brief comments about the outbreaks came following a roundtable event announcing nearly $1 billion in new funding to states to address PFAS in drinking water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday.
The secretary has been on a midterm blitz recently, touting the administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement during stops including Ohio and California.
At a subsequent event featuring Kennedy and other health leaders at the White House, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Heidi Overton stressed that “there are no cases of Ebola in America.”
Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Heidi Overton stressed during the event that “there are no cases of Ebola in America.”
“We want to keep it that way and we are doing everything we can to support Americans in the region,” Overton added.
In this photo illustration, a laboratory test tubes containing blood to be analyzed for the Hantavirus “Orthohantavirus” outbreak, held by a nurse. (Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo.) — Colorado public health officials are investigating the death of an adult resident as a result of hantavirus.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Douglas County Health Department said the death is not linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which led to 11 confirmed and probable cases, including two confirmed deaths and one suspected death.
The individual lived in Douglas County — located just south of Denver — but information about the patient’s name, age and sex were not immediately available.
Health officials said the individual was infected by the Sin Nombre hantavirus, which is the most common cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in North America.
HPS symptoms typically appear from one to eight weeks after contact with the virus, with early signs including fever, fatigue and muscle aches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of HPS patients will experience headaches, chills, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.’
Between four and 10 days after the initial phase of illness, symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest can emerge, the CDC said, adding that a patient’s lungs can fill with fluid.
“Hantavirus infections caused by the Sin Nombre hantavirus occur regularly in Colorado, usually in the spring and summer, and can cause a severe and sometimes deadly respiratory disease,” according to public health officials. “In Colorado, the deer mouse is the rodent species that most commonly exposes people to the virus. Avoiding exposure to rodents and their urine, feces, saliva, and nesting materials is the best way to prevent infection.”
According to the CDC, there were six cases of Hantavirus in Colorado from 2020 to 2023.
Medical staff direct some of the last passengers to be evacuated from the MV Hondius on May 11, 2026, in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. (Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Health experts tell ABC News that the current science behind the hantavirus that circulated throughout the MV Hondius does not show the same levels of transmission as with COVID-19, while acknowledging that the scenario may seem similar to the beginning of the 2020 pandemic.
“Our current understanding is that person-to-person transmission of Andes virus is relatively rare and generally associated with prolonged close contact,” the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public health assessment said. “There is also no documented evidence of presymptomatic transmission.”
Officials around the globe have taken major steps to prevent the spread of the hantavirus, and an American doctor who was onboard noted how conditions on the cruise ship may have helped the virus propagate.
In the U.S., the boat’s 18 American passengers have been put in quarantine in Nebraska, while more than 40 people with exposure to the sick are being monitored to see if they develop the illness.
“In the vast majority of cases it happens when people breathe in mouse secretions,” Dr. Emily Abdoler, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, who specializes in infectious diseases, told ABC News.
“The Andes strain found in Chile and Argentina has the possibility of human-to-human transmission, but that’s really more really close contact. It’s not sharing the same household,” she added. “It’s more like sharing the same bed.”
Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, an American oncologist who became the ship’s de facto doctor after the Hondius’ physician contracted the virus, initially received inconclusive results with samples taken from the ship but later tested negative.
Speaking to ABC News from his quarantine on Thursday, Kornfeld noted that conditions on the ship — including ventilation and the size of rooms — could have created a “complicated” situation for transmission while observing some social casual contact.
“If you do have casual contact, you’re doing it repetitively,” he said. “There were three rooms that we would gather in many times a day, often for an hour or an hour and a half, for lectures and discussions and meals. And I can just envision lots of frequent casual contacts, and perhaps over time that adds up to something more than just a single casual contact.”
Abdoler, who helped diagnose a case of hantavirus in Michigan in 2021 — the type we have in the U.S. that does not spread between people –said the benefit that medical professionals and agencies, such as the World Health Organization, have now is that the hantavirus has been researched for over 30 years. It is not a new virus.
While the data around the Andes strain believed to have been on the boat is still limited given the rare number of cases outside of South America, Abdoler said there does not appear to be any indication that the transmission methods have changed for the Andes strain.
ABC News medical contributor and epidemiologist Dr. John Brownstein concurred, saying that previous research suggests the hantavirus is a respiratory illness. That means germs can be coughed up, he noted, but it is not an aerosol-based virus.
“It’s not like COVID or measles where it could linger in the air for some time,” he said.
Brownstein added that the incubation period for the virus is long, and despite the lower risk for person-to-person transmission, it is critical that health officials stick to their policies to isolate and monitor anyone connected to the Hondius. Isolation can then be initiated if they become a positive case.
“Incubation can be anywhere from one to eight weeks,” he noted.
During a news briefing Friday, WHO officials stressed that said there is no evidence so far that the virus has changed to become more transmissible or more severe.
Officials said transmission is believed to be based on several factors, including how infectious the patient is, the environment and whether protection and PPE was used.
On Friday, acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Jay Bhattacharya told reporters no cases of hantavirus have been reported in the U.S.
There are now at least 10 cases that have been linked to the ship’s outbreak. Two passengers died from the virus and a third death has been deemed probable by WHO.
Sixteen Hondius passengers, including Kornfeld, initially were flown to the quarantine center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and had not shown any symptoms as of early Friday. Kornfeld had been placed in a biocontainment unit at the facility.
Two other American passengers were flown to Atlanta for “assessment and care,” according to officials. They were later transferred to the quarantine unit in Nebraska on Friday.
The remainder of the passengers are in quarantine at home and are being monitored.
WHO warned more positive cases could still appear during quarantine because the virus’ incubation period is long, but said that would not necessarily mean the outbreak is growing.
Abdoler noted that the fact that there have not been as many positive cases from the ship and their contacts shows that the data about the Andes transmission is holding up and there are no signs that the virus can spread as easily as other pathogens.
She noted that he is glad that the risk is being taken seriously and that those that have been exposed are being monitored.
“My sense is that there is no really need to panic, but [WHO] is taking a very conservative approach to the outbreak and asking everyone to isolate during the intubation period,” she said.
“I think it is good they are taking a conservative approach because there are unknowns, but I am not personally altering my personal practices of travel or how I go out,” she added.
– ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.
Healthcare workers walk outside the Ebola treatment centre in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (2019). (Photo by Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) – An Ebola outbreak has been confirmed in the Ituri province in Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of the latest update, about 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths have been reported, mainly in Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, officials said.
Africa CDC said that preliminary lab results from the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) have detected Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples tested. Four deaths have been reported among laboratory-confirmed cases.
The latest outbreak comes around five months after Congo’s last Ebola outbreak was declared over after more than 40 deaths.
“Africa CDC is closely monitoring the situation and convening an urgent high-level coordination meeting today with the DRC, Uganda, South Sudan and global partners to reinforce cross-border surveillance, preparedness and outbreak response efforts,” officials said in a statement Friday.
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou contributed to this report
Marty Makary attends an executive order signing in the Oval Office on April 18, 2026.(Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary intends to resign on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
His departure was in the works after he clashed publicly with lawmakers, major pharmaceutical companies and President Donald Trump himself. He was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Makary, who is a surgeon by training, gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing against masks for children and vaccine mandates, and criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for citing Israeli data in recommending boosters rather than conducting its own research.
Since taking office in March 2025, the commissioner has focused his efforts on reshaping vaccine policy in the U.S. and transforming American diets.
Makary appeared in a video on X alongside Kennedy when the secretary announced in May 2025 the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s immunization schedule for “healthy children and pregnant women.”
“There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children,” Makary said at the time.
Last year, Makary appeared at a news conference announcing the HHS and FDA would be implementing a series of measures to phase out eight artificial food dyes and colorings from America’s food supply by the end of 2026.
Makary said at the time that the agencies are looking to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings and to work with the food industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes used in cereal, ice cream, snacks, yogurts and more — claiming American children “have been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.”
Makary also supported Kennedy’s updated federal dietary guidelines earlier this year. The guidelines recommended that Americans limit highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates but also advocated for consuming red meat and full-fat dairy, a reversal of past nutrition guidance.
“For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak and ignoring a giant blind spot: refined carbohydrates, refined sugars, ultra-processed foods,” Makary said. “In this new guidance, we are telling young people, kids, schools, you don’t need to tiptoe around fat and dairy. … You don’t need to push low-fat milk to kids.”
In early May, Trump criticized Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vape and nicotine products, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s advisers informed him that Makary was delaying the president’s effort to “save” vaping,” a pledge Trump made on social media during his presidential campaign, according to the Journal.
A view of the Dutch-flagged vessel MV Hondius is seen navigating the Atlantic Ocean near Saint Helena Island on April 24, 2026. (Emin Yogurtcuoglu/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — An epidemiologist from the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that the suspected hantavirus cluster aboard a cruise ship is not the beginning of another COVID-19 pandemic.
Eight cases are currently being reported by the WHO, including five laboratory-confirmed cases and three suspected cases. Of those eight cases, three have died.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist and acting director of epidemic and pandemic management at the WHO, was asked during a press conference what the difference was between this cluster and the early days of the COVID pandemic.
“I want to be unequivocal here. This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship,” Van Kerkhove said.
Van Kerkhove explained that hantavirus doesn’t spread in the same way that coronaviruses do, but rather through “close, intimate contact.” Most hantaviruses don’t transmit from person to person.
“The actions that are being taken on board [the ship] are precautionary to prevent any onward spread,” she added.
There appears to be one confirmed case and two suspected cases that have not been added to the WHO’s official count yet.
Officials told ABC News a female individual, who was on a KLM flight with the Dutch female patient who later died, developed symptoms and was admitted to a hospital. Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands confirmed on Thursday that the female patient has hantavirus and is receiving care.
Additionally, two Singapore residents who were on board the ship are currently being monitored. Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency said it was notified of the individuals on May 4 and May 5.
“They have been isolated at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, where they are being tested for hantavirus. The risk to the general public in Singapore is currently low,” the agency said.
The agency added that test results are pending, with one resident having a runny nose and the other is asymptomatic.
Three deaths have been recorded so far, including a married Dutch couple. The 70-year-old male patient died on April 11, and his body was taken off the ship on the island of St. Helena on April 24. His 69-year-old wife disembarked on the same day, and her health rapidly deteriorated. She died at an emergency department in South Africa on April 26.
A third passenger, a German woman, presented with pneumonia symptoms starting on April 28, according to the WHO. The woman died on May 2 from causes not yet known, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the cruise ship.
The WHO said 29 people disembarked on St. Helena on the same day that the body of the Dutch male patient and his wife disembarked.
They traveled to 12 countries: Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, St. Kitts and Nevis, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
The disembarked guests have all been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions. In the U.S., local authorities in three states — Arizona, Georgia and California — are monitoring the disembarked passengers and are conducting contact tracing, None have shown signs of illness at this time.
Anais Legend, technical lead for viral hemorrhagic fevers at WHO, said during the press conference on Thursday that “step-by-step guidance is being developed” for the disembarked passengers and that the WHO is coordinating with national authorities.
Anyone with any signs of symptoms will be isolated while other passengers have their risk exposure evaluated.
Public health experts said they expected a more robust response from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DC) and the National Institutes of Health.
“The CDC would typically be asked by WHO or by a country to help in technical assistance,” Dr. Carlos del Rio, an H. Cliff Sauls distinguished professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine, told reporters on Thursday.
Typically, CDC teams would be deployed to an area, he said, and the teams would perform contact tracing and interviews and conduct an outbreak investigation.
“I would envision by now, many, many days ago, we would have seen a team from CDC deployed to the area,” he added.
Dr. Jeanna Marrazzo, CEO of the IDSA, added that she would have expected a CDC press briefing, an alert from the agency’s Health Alert Network or information from the NIH on potential treatments in the pipeline that could receive emergency use authorization to help treat hantavirus patients.
Marrazzo said she is not aware that conservations about potential therpaies at NIH aren’t happening but that it “doesn’t give me a lot of assurance or reassurance that we are not hearing any of that.”
The WHO said during Thursday’s press briefing that the U.S. is coordinating with the global health agency in a technical capacity.
Because the cluster is limited and confined to a cruise ship, the “idea of sending messages across the world and panicking everyone is not required,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahmoud, director of the WHO’s health emergency alert and response operations.
He added that the WHO is “informally” aware that contact tracing has been done of the U.S. passengers who disembarked last month and are back home.
A hantavirus is a virus found in the urine, saliva or excrement of deer mice and certain other infected wild rodents (Icy Macload/Getty Images)
(LONDON and BELGRADE, Serbia) — The total number of suspected hantavirus cases aboard a cruise ship has risen to five as global health authorities work to contain a potentially deadly cluster of the disease.
More than 100 passengers remain on the ship and the World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring their health. Officials said that the “overall public health risk remains low” but that there may be some person-to-person spread.
The ship, the MV Hondius, which was off the coast of Africa in Cape Verde, is now en route to the Canary Islands after officials medically evacuated three people, including two in “serious condition.”
Some passengers disembarked the ship before knowledge of the cluster and are back in their home countries. In some cases, authorities are advising those passengers to self-isolate.
In addition to the two patients who were evacuated, a third person, who is asymptomatic but a close contact of a German national who died on May 2, was also removed from the ship, WHO officials in Cape Verde told ABC News.
“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said in a post on X on Wednesday, in which he confirmed the evacuations.
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” he continued.
Tedros added that “the overall public health risk remains low.”
Health officials confirmed two additional cases of hantavirus among crewmembers, bringing the total confirmed cases to five.
The three previously confirmed hantavirus cases include a woman who disembarked and was on her way home from the Netherlands, a British national who is in critical but stable condition in a hospital in Johannesburg, and a passenger who traveled on the first leg of the voyage and is currently being treated at the University Hospital Zurich, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the ship. So far, three deaths have been recorded.
“Swiss authorities have confirmed a case of hantavirus identified in a passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship,” the WHO said on X on Wednesday. “He had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, and is receiving care.”
The type of virus in this outbreak has been confirmed as Andes hantavirus by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland, the WHO said Wednesday. The Andes hantavirus historically has been shown to potentially transmit between people, according to the WHO.
Oceanwide Expeditions said of the three passengers who were evacuated from the ship, two are symptomatic and in serious condition and the third is asymptomatic but a close contact of a German national who died on May 2.
“In partnership with the RIVM (Dutch Institute for Public Health and Environment), Oceanwide Expeditions is expanding medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians, arriving today by plane from the Netherlands. This ensures that optimal medical care can be provided if necessary, during the next stage of this evolving situation,” the company said in a statement.
Cape Verde officials said on Tuesday that the vessel was expected to sail to the Spanish island of Tenerife, but the president of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa, said on Wednesday that the regional government was opposed to allowing the luxury cruise ship to dock in Tenerife.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” President Fernando Clavijo told radio station COPE, according to Reuters.
Clavijo said on social media that he had requested a meeting with the Spanish prime minister to discuss the ship. He added that the Canary Islands “always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population.”
Mónica García, Spain’s minister of health, said once the ship arrives at the port of Granadilla de Abona in the Canary Islands, there will be a “joint screening and evacuation mechanism will be launched to repatriate all passengers,” according to RTVE, a Spanish national public broadcaster.
“Unless their medical condition prevents it, all foreign passengers will be repatriated through the European civil protection mechanism, about which the Interior Minister will provide further details later,” Garcia said in Spanish.
WHO officials earlier on Wednesday said the three evacuated people were to be transferred to planes bound for both the Netherlands and Tenerife, but later updated the plan so that all would be sent to the Netherlands, officials told ABC News.
A hantavirus is a virus found in the urine, saliva or excrement of deer mice and certain other infected wild rodents (Icy Macload/Getty Images)
(LONDON and BELGRADE, Serbia) — Three people have been evacuated off of the MV Hondius, a cruise ship with a suspected hantavirus cluster, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
WHO officials in Cape Verde told ABC News that the patients were to be transferred to ambulances waiting on the shore to receive them. The three were then to be taken to an airport, where they were expected to board a special medevac flight to the Netherlands.
“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said on social media, where he confirmed the evacuations.
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” he added.
He said that “the overall public health risk remains low.”
The WHO said on Wednesday that eight suspected cases of hantavirus were recorded among passengers on the ship, an increase from the seven reported on Tuesday. Three of the cases had been confirmed by lab testing, WHO said.
“Swiss authorities have confirmed a case of hantavirus identified in a passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship,” the WHO said on social media on Wednesday. “He had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, and is receiving care.”
There have been three deaths among the reported cases, including a married couple from the Netherlands, one of whom was confirmed to have been infected with hantavirus, authorities said.
Cape Verde officials said on Tuesday that the vessel was expected to sail to the Spanish island of Tenerife, where Spanish health authorities were to take over further investigations, including lab testing and clinical assessments, particularly for older passengers.
The leader of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa, said on Wednesday that the regional government was opposed to allowing the luxury cruise ship to dock at Tenerife.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands told radio station COPE, according to Reuters.
Clavijo said on social media that he had requested a meeting with the Spanish prime minister to discuss the ship. He added that the Canary Islands “always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population.”
WHO officials earlier on Wednesday said the three evacuated people were to be transferred to planes bound for both the Netherlands and Tenerife, but later updated the plan so that all would be sent to the Netherlands, officials told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
