WHO declares cruise-ship hantavirus outbreak over

The World Health Organization has officially declared the 2026 hantavirus outbreak over, two months after the first cases emerged aboard a cruise ship. The final person exposed through contact with a passenger from the MV Hondius tested negative and returned home from quarantine, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, with no new cases reported since 25 May.

The outbreak drew international concern because of the virus's high fatality rate and because the variant aboard the ship could pass from person to person. The WHO first reported the rodent-borne outbreak on 4 May after three passengers died; 13 further cases were later confirmed among passengers and their contacts, none of them fatal. Although 17 of the ship's passengers were American, no cases occurred in the United States, according to the CDC.