Colorado public health officials investigating hantavirus death not linked to cruise ship cluster
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.
An Influenza Vaccine is prepared for a patient, Sept. 12, 2025, in Coral Gables, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(SAN ANTONIO) — The basic training facility for the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas, is experiencing a flu outbreak following the end of mandatory vaccination for all service members.
As of Wednesday, there are at least 159 known cases among recruits and two hospitalizations at Joint Base San Antonio, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. One source told ABC News the number of cases and hospitalizations may be higher.
The outbreak comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in April that the annual flu vaccine would be optional for all U.S. military personnel, both active and reserve.
Previously, the flu vaccine was mandatory, but the new policy is in line with a previous change of making the COVID-19 vaccine optional.
The Pentagon has granted the military services exceptions to the policy, so the flu vaccine can be required in certain cases.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the outbreak to ABC News and said in a statement that over the last three weeks there has been a “localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training.”
“Medical professionals and Public Health officials have implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees to reduce further exposure and continue to monitor the situation,” the statement read. “Medical personnel are also monitoring trainees who were in close contact with sick members in case they become symptomatic.”
The spokesperson said symptomatic trainees are receiving “the appropriate care” including antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.
“Once they are cleared by medical professionals they will return to training,” the statement said.
Earlier this year, when Hegseth ended mandatory vaccination, he referred to the policy as “overly broad and not rational.”
“Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you,” Hegseth said.
The sources told ABC News that there is 40% flu vaccination rate among recruits at the San Antonio base since the mandate was lifted. Previously, the rate was nearly 100%.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told ABC News that the Defense Department recently granted exceptions to the policy for the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Security Agency (NSA) and Defense Health Agency (DHA) through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
“The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations,” Parnell said. “The Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, and DHA are responsible for implementing the [exceptions to the policy]. The Department remains committed to the health and readiness of our warfighters and civilian personnel.”
The annual flu vaccine is currently recommended to everyone over 6 months old between September and the start of November. Although the typical flu season ends by February or March, people can become infected at any time.
People who travel internationally or live in group settings are at higher risk of transmitting and acquiring infectious diseases.
Public health specialists have warned that military members may suffer unnecessary complications from the flu after the vaccination mandate was ended and fear that severe cases will continue to climb in subsequent flu seasons if preventive vaccinations aren’t given to those most at risk.
Evidence has shown that young recruits are much more vulnerable to severe infection from influenza compared to other service members, though lower than the general population due to the military having historically high immunization rates.
A study published last year by the Defense Health Agency found that from the 2010-2011 to the 2023-2024 flu seasons, the highest rate of influenza hospitalizations among active service members were among those under the age of 25, especially young recruits.
The flu vaccine has been required for the military since 1945, at the end of World War II, partly tied to the threat of biological warfare use by rival nations and as well as the devastation that the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 wreaked on U.S. troops, according to a 2022 analysis from Wright State University in Ohio and the U.S. Air Force.
It’s estimated that between 20% and 40% of Army and Navy personnel fell ill, with more than 26,000 deaths among U.S. soldiers during the 1918-1920 flu pandemic.
After researchers noticed the effectiveness of the vaccine fading, the mandate was withdrawn in 1949. This was later found to be caused by abrupt and major changes to the flu virus — and the mandate was reinstated in the early 1950s after the changes became “clearer and combatable,” according to the analysis.
Compliance among military health care personnel has exceeded 95% in past years, compared to less than 75% among civilian health care personnel.
Adi, 38, has been struggling to access health services for her daughter Camila, 10, who was injured a few months ago, due to the high cost and limited services. (Mauro Jose Medina Garcia/The International Rescue Committee)
(NEW YORK) — As Venezuela continues to recover from powerful twin earthquakes that rocked the north-central part of the country in late June, humanitarian organizations are warning of a “dire” situation on the ground.
The earthquakes, which officials say killed more than 4,400 people and injured more than 16,000, have displaced thousands of Venezuelans.
Aid workers told ABC News that countless people are in need of psychosocial support, in addition to those recovering from earthquake injuries.
Many Venezuelans are also suffering from chronic conditions — such as diabetes and hypertension — and are struggling to get care in the aftermath of the natural disaster.
Additionally, there has been a rise in reports of skin conditions and gastrointestinal diseases due to a lack of clean water and poor sanitation conditions, the workers said.
“The situation on the ground is pretty dire in terms of humanitarian needs,” Aisha Majid, a media manager at the international NGO Save the Children who is currently based in Caracas, told ABC News. “I’ve been here for a week, and there are thousands of families who are displaced on the streets.”
Mobile clinics treating wide range of conditions
Aid workers told ABC News that hospitals in Venezuela are currently overwhelmed treating people injured by the earthquakes, adding that some of the backlog predates the earthquakes.
“There are thousands of patients seeking help, and there aren’t enough doctors or hospitals or primary healthcare facilities,” Claudia Manresa, a regional compliance legal manager for the humanitarian organization Project HOPE in Latin America who is based in Venezuela, told ABC News. “There also aren’t enough medications, so this crisis joins a system that was already overwhelmed.”
Mobile clinics have been helping to fill some of the gaps. Manresa said Project HOPE has two mobile medical units running every day and, as of July 9, they have treated about 2,000 patients.
Save the Children is running a mobile clinic treating both patients with earthquake-related injuries, as well as other health needs including infections and chronic conditions. Majid said the organization is hoping to set up several mobile clinics across the capital of Caracas and the city of La Guaira, which was hit hard by the earthquakes.
Majid recalled that she visited a mobile clinic earlier in the month that Save the Children ran on the northeastern outskirts of Caracas through a local partner, which treated about 150 patients in around four hours.
“The second the clinic opened, there was a queue of people waiting to receive services, which just tells you how much in need people are, and the doctors in the clinic were working nonstop all day, just seeing patient after patient,” she said.
Everardo Esquivel, associate director for communications for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), told ABC News that many healthcare facilities were damaged in the earthquakes. As a result, he said people lost access to primary care and follow-up care.
Thirty-eight hospitals were damaged by the earthquakes, with the main referral hospital in La Guaira exceeding capacity within one day, according to the IRC.
The IRC’s mobile medical unit has been trying to help manage the increase in patient care, providing medicine for those with chronic conditions, including hypertension and diabetes, as well as antibiotics for certain conditions, he said.
Esquivel explained that there’s been a rise in skin conditions and diarrheal diseases due to the lack of clean water in the aftermath of the earthquake. Many shelters have virtually no access to toilets or showers, he said.
“People don’t have access to clean water and to properly clean wounds every day, so they get infections,” he said. “So, it’s two cases [at the mobile clinics]: it’s people with chronic diseases or in need of regular treatment and people who got new diseases related to the situation after the earthquakes.”
Need for psychosocial support
Humanitarian workers told ABC News there are also mental health issues that may arise after the earthquakes.
The World Health Organization said almost all people affected by emergencies experience psychological distress, which generally improves over time, but a fraction of people will go on to develop mental health conditions.
Manresa said Project HOPE is providing what aid workers refer to as psychological first aid, with a psychologist team deployed in La Guaira, offering different activities for kids and for adults.
She said the organization also has several phone lines that people can contact if they need help.
Children are particularly vulnerable. After a disaster, they may develop mental health symptoms including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A 2017 review of eight studies of children following natural disasters found that 4% to 23% experienced chronic symptoms, with persistently elevated PTSD over time.
Majid, with Save the Children, said she’s met several children who are experiencing trauma after the earthquake.
Majid recalled meeting an 11-year-old boy who told her he’s scared when he sees cracks in the ground because he thinks it means the Earth will open again. She noted that another boy told her he’s scared to use the bathroom nearby because there is a crack in it.
“What we’re seeing is that there is a huge need for psychological support for children, and this is something that we provide through safe spaces that we run in affected areas,” Majid said. “And this is a place where children can come, they can play for a while.”
She noted that the organization has psychologists and specialists in mental health working with the young people there.
“It’s so important that children not only have a place where they can play but a place where they can also safely express their emotions and find a way to connect with the trauma and the grief that so many of them have been through,” she said.
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.
