Canada Confirms Hantavirus Case Linked to Deadly MV Hondius Cruise Outbreak as Global Monitoring Continues
Canadian health officials have confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship has tested positive for hantavirus, as international authorities continue monitoring the outbreak connected to the vessel.
Canada confirmed a hantavirus case tied to the MV Hondius cruise outbreak as global health officials monitor infections and deaths.
The Public Health Agency of Canada announced the confirmed result on Sunday after British Columbia’s top public health officer had earlier described the case as a “presumptive positive.”
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“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the agency said in a statement.
Officials added that more testing will be carried out at a national laboratory, although it was not immediately known whether the additional analysis would focus on confirmation, strain characterization, or another purpose.
The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius has continued to draw global attention after multiple passengers became ill. According to the World Health Organization, 11 cases connected to the cruise had been identified as of May 13. That total included eight confirmed cases, two probable cases, and one inconclusive case, along with three deaths.
The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation increased the number of passengers from the ship who had tested positive to 10.
Canadian officials said four Canadians returned home from the cruise ship, but only one has so far tested positive for the virus. The infected individual and a traveling companion, identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s, traveled home together after the cruise. Authorities said the companion later tested negative.
Health officials also said a third individual in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.
No confirmed U.S. cases connected to the cruise ship have been reported. However, WHO stated that one passenger repatriated to the United States had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing additional testing as of May 13.
Separately, officials in Ontario County, New York, said last week that they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise outbreak. The Ontario County Public Health Department stated there was no danger to the wider public and noted that the strain commonly found in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.
The outbreak began after the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius departed Argentina on April 1 carrying 147 passengers and crew members on a South Atlantic voyage.
The incident has also prompted heightened international precautions. In the Netherlands, Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine had not been handled under the strictest recommended safety protocols for the virus strain.
The outbreak has drawn comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic, though Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel rejected those comparisons.
“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”
Siegel added that while coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except in “very rare” instances of person-to-person transmission.
The World Health Organization has assessed the overall risk to the global population as low. WHO also noted that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred aboard the ship. Andes virus remains the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though officials consider such spread rare.
Siegel also emphasized that hantavirus cases have existed in the United States for decades, although they remain “very rare.”
