Topline Health officials will meet American passengers of the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship when the boat reaches the Canary Islands and escort them to a quarantine site in Nebraska, CNN reported Friday, where they will stay for an unspecified amount of time.
Timeline Friday, May 8, 2026 CNN cites unnamed health officials in reporting the estimated 17 Americans onboard the cruise ship will be escorted on a charter flight and taken to the National Quarantine Unit, a federally funded quarantine facility in Omaha. Forbes has reached out to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more information. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill says two state residents are being monitored after they were potentially exposed to a cruise passenger with hantavirus after that person disembarked the ship, joining local health officials in California, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and Virginia in monitoring potential contacts. Spanish health official Javier Padilla says a 32-year-old woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante is now showing symptoms consistent with the disease, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected cases to nine. Two residents of Singapore who were onboard the cruise ship during the outbreak and were on the same flight as the patient who later died have tested negative for the virus, Singaporean officials say.
Context: The MV Hondius cruise ship has encountered an outbreak of hantavirus, a serious infectious disease.
Fact Check: The outbreak has resulted in confirmed and suspected cases, with some passengers and crew members testing positive for the virus.
Key Background The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for the Canary Islands off the coast of northwestern Africa, visiting some of the world’s most remote islands along the way. The ship made stops in Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena, and Ascension Island before facing denial to dock at Cape Verde. Spanish officials have allowed the ship to dock in Tenerife, where passengers can disembark and return to their home countries.
Fact Check: The ship’s journey has included multiple stops in remote locations, contributing to the spread of the outbreak among passengers and crew members.
What Are The Symptoms Of Hantavirus? Hantaviruses cause two syndromes: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome causes fatigue, fever, muscle aches, abdominal problems, headaches, chills, and dizziness in early stages, progressing to chest tightness, coughing, shortness of breath, and fluid accumulation in the lungs. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome affects the kidneys and can lead to internal bleeding and kidney failure.
Fact Check: Hantavirus can lead to serious respiratory and kidney-related symptoms, with different strains causing varying levels of severity.
Surprising Fact Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, died in February 2025 from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome at the age of 65.
Further Reading Forbes has covered various aspects of the hantavirus outbreak, including the potential size of the outbreak, the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment, and the hope of avoiding an epidemic based on previous outbreaks.
