#19,141
While the origins of the hantavirus infection currently spreading aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic remain unknown, the ship embarked from an Argentine port on April 1st, making the Andes Virus a potential suspect.
Yesterday, the Argentine MOH released a statement, which provides us with additional information on the ship's recent itinerary, along with a recap of hantavirus cases in the region.
First some (translated) excerpts from the statement:
The Ministry of Health is monitoring, along with international organizations, the hantavirus cases reported on the MV Hondius ship.
The national health ministry is maintaining a technical and epidemiological exchange with international and provincial authorities to gather official information on the confirmed cases on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship.
(Excerpt)
On May 2, our country's National Centre for Epidemiology received notification of a cluster of severe acute respiratory illnesses on board the cruise ship, including three deaths and one passenger with laboratory confirmation of hantavirus. The transmission route is currently unknown, and further testing is ongoing at the South African National Reference Laboratory to identify the strain and origin of the outbreak. The crew and passengers remain in isolation, and those affected have been transferred to receive the necessary medical care.
The vessel, which had departed from Montevideo, entered the port of Ushuaia on November 16, 2025. From there, it made several coastal voyages between Ushuaia, the Antarctic sector, and the islands of the South Atlantic.
On April 1, 2026, it set sail for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Saint Helena, and other points in the South Atlantic. The province of Tierra del Fuego reported no significant health-related events.
It is worth noting that Tierra del Fuego has no hantavirus and has not registered any cases since this disease was added to the list of notifiable events in our country in 1996. Its neighboring province, Santa Cruz, only registered one case in 2004. Currently, the Southern region is in a safe zone, with only 10 cases reported in Neuquén, Río Negro, and Chubut during the 2025-2026 season, which began on July 29 of last year.
While the ship has been operating out of a region of the country without any history of hantavirus activity, it is always possible a passenger was exposed somewhere else prior to boarding the ship.
Yesterday the Argentine MOH released an update to their most recent Epidemiological bulletin, with a special focus on Hantavirus activity (and Mpox). I've provided a translation of the hantavirus section below.
On May 2, the Netherlands National Focal Point (NFP) notified the Argentine NFP of a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship with 147 passengers and crew from 23 different countries. The ship had departed from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, on April 1 and was following a route through the South Atlantic with multiple stops. The ship is currently off the coast of Cape Verde, the country that will lead the response to the outbreak.
To date, a total of 6 cases have been identified, of which 3 have resulted in death. All passengers and crew are in isolation and maintaining the necessary social distancing to prevent further infections. Patients with compatible symptoms have been transferred to receive appropriate medical care. The National Ministry of Health is in contact with the National Epidemiological Surveillance Centers (NECs) of the countries involved to gather information on the cases' itineraries prior to boarding, the type of contact they had on the cruise ship, and the identification of close contacts. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (ANLIS) "Carlos G. Malbrán" has also offered advice regarding laboratory diagnosis and the possibility of performing sequencing and genomic analysis of the samples.
Given this situation, the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (BEN) reports that since epidemiological week 13, 9 new cases have been reported nationwide, located in Buenos Aires Province (4 cases), Salta (3 cases), Jujuy (1 case), and Chubut (1 case). So far this year, 42 new cases have been reported, and since the beginning of the season (epidemiological week 27 of 2025), the total number of confirmed cases has reached 101.
The majority are concentrated in the Central region, with Buenos Aires Province reporting the most confirmed cases (42). However, the highest incidence rate corresponds to the Northwest region (0.60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), where 36 confirmed cases have been registered, 83% of which are concentrated in Salta.
Regarding the cases reported in the Southern region, the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (BEN) reports that one of the confirmed cases in Río Negro corresponds to the town of Río Colorado, located outside the historically endemic areas for hantavirus. In this context, environmental investigations were carried out in this town and other neighboring areas, and four potential exposure sites were identified. No species known to be reservoirs of pathogenic hantavirus were captured, and the specimens obtained tested serologically negative. Based on these findings, the jurisdictions were recommended to implement periodic environmental monitoring to assess the composition of rodent populations during periods of peak abundance and to identify the environments associated with reservoir species.
Finally, during the current season, an intrafamilial cluster was recorded in the town of Cerro Centinela (Chubut), involving three related cases (cohabiting individuals) with sequential symptom onset dates.
Following notification of the index case, the province conducted an environmental focus study and recorded the presence of wild rodents known as hantavirus reservoirs. One of the captured specimens even tested positive for the hantavirus. The epidemiological characteristics of the event raised suspicion of person-to-person transmission, prompting genomic analysis of the human samples. The results indicated that the sequences corresponded to the Andes virus, with a 99.99% similarity among the three cases analyzed. The results of the genomic sequencing of the virus detected in the seropositive rodent are still pending.
We'll know a lot more once sequencing of the virus is complete, which will hopefully become available this week.
Stay tuned.
