分类： health

A tragic suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship has claimed the lives of three people, prompting public health officials to launch an investigation into how the rodent-borne pathogen spread in a confined maritime setting. As authorities work to contain the incident and identify additional cases, many members of the public are seeking clear answers about what hantavirus is, how it spreads, and what risks it poses to human populations. Hantavirus is a type of virus that is primarily hosted and transmitted by wild rodents, with different species of the virus found across regions of North America, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. Humans most commonly contract the virus through contact with rodent urine, feces, or nesting materials, when infectious particles become airborne and are inhaled. Rare cases of transmission can also occur through bites from infected rodents, and in some documented instances, person-to-person spread has been reported for specific strains of the virus. The most severe form of hantavirus infection in North America is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which causes rapid fluid buildup in the lungs and has a mortality rate of roughly 38% according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This current outbreak on a cruise ship, a closed environment that can facilitate exposure if rodents have gained access to food storage or living areas, has raised new questions about public health protocols on commercial passenger vessels. At this stage, investigations are ongoing to confirm that the three deaths were indeed caused by hantavirus, identify the source of the outbreak on the ship, and implement measures to prevent further infections among passengers and crew.

A rare rodent-borne hantavirus outbreak is suspected to have occurred aboard an Atlantic cruise ship, leaving three people dead and multiple others ill, international health authorities confirmed recently. As investigations into the source and spread of the outbreak continue, public health officials are reminding communities of the core risks and prevention measures for this little-understood pathogen.

Hantaviruses have circulated among animal populations for centuries, with early recorded outbreaks documented across Asia and Europe. In the Eastern Hemisphere, the virus is most commonly associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a condition marked by kidney failure and internal bleeding. It was not until the early 1990s that a new strain of hantavirus was identified in the southwestern United States, where it causes a severe respiratory illness now named hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

This virus re-entered public focus last year following the death of Betsy Arakawa, wife of the late legendary actor Gene Hackman, who contracted a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.

In a formal statement released Sunday, the World Health Organization confirmed that comprehensive investigations into the cruise ship outbreak are still ongoing. The process includes expanded laboratory testing, full epidemiological tracing to identify the origin of the infection, and ongoing genetic sequencing of the virus to confirm its strain.

As a zoonotic disease, hantavirus is primarily transmitted to humans through direct contact with rodents, or contact with their urine, saliva, and feces. The highest infection risk occurs when infected organic material is disturbed, releasing viral particles into the air that people can inhale. Most human exposures occur in enclosed, low-ventilation spaces such as rural cabins, outbuildings, or infrequently cleaned homes where rodent populations have established nests. While extremely rare, the WHO confirms that limited person-to-person transmission of hantavirus has been documented in past outbreaks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established formal national tracking for hantavirus after a major 1993 outbreak in the Four Corners region, the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The outbreak was first identified by a sharp Indian Health Service physician who noticed an unusual cluster of unexplained deaths among otherwise healthy young patients, a pattern that had gone unrecognized by larger health systems at the time.

Today, most confirmed hantavirus cases in the U.S. are concentrated in Western states, with New Mexico and Arizona longstanding hotspots for infection. Michelle Harkins, a pulmonologist at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center who has spent decades researching hantavirus and treating infected patients, explains the higher case rate is tied to increased interactions between humans and wild rodent populations in rural areas of these states.

Early hantavirus infection presents with generic flu-like symptoms, including fever, chills, muscle aches and headaches, making early diagnosis extremely difficult. “Early in the illness, you really may not be able to tell the difference between hantavirus and having the flu,” explained Dr. Sonja Bartolome, an infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome typically develop between one and eight weeks after exposure to an infected rodent. As the infection progresses, it causes fluid to build up in the lungs, leading to severe chest tightness and respiratory failure. The alternate form of the disease, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, develops much more quickly, with symptoms appearing within one to two weeks of exposure.

Mortality rates for hantavirus infection vary widely based on the strain. According to CDC data, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome kills approximately 35% of all people it infects, while hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome has a mortality rate ranging between 1% and 15%.

Decades of research have yet to resolve many critical questions about hantavirus, and no targeted antiviral treatment or cure currently exists for infection. Even so, experts emphasize that early supportive medical care significantly improves a patient’s chance of survival. Harkins notes that core gaps in knowledge remain, including why the virus causes mild, asymptomatic infection in some people and life-threatening illness in others, as well as how the human body develops protective antibodies after exposure. She and her team have conducted long-term cohort studies of recovered patients to uncover insights that could lead to new treatments. “A lot of mysteries,” Harkins said, adding that the one clear takeaway from existing research is that limiting exposure to rodents is the single most effective way to prevent infection.

Public health officials advise that the core prevention step is to minimize contact with rodents and their waste. When cleaning up areas with rodent droppings, people must wear disposable protective gloves and use a bleach solution to decontaminate surfaces. Experts strongly warn against sweeping or vacuuming droppings, as these actions stir viral particles into the air, drastically increasing inhalation risk.

A suspected hantavirus outbreak on an Atlantic Ocean cruise ship has left three people dead, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed. Of the six reported cases linked to the incident, one has received formal laboratory confirmation, while the remaining five are still being examined as part of ongoing investigations.

The outbreak unfolded aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise vessel operating on a voyage from Argentina to the West African island nation of Cape Verde. WHO spokespeople told the BBC that detailed epidemiological inquiries, including additional rounds of laboratory testing, are still underway to clarify the full scope of the transmission event.

To contextualize the public health risk, hantaviruses are a family of pathogens naturally hosted by rodent populations. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that most human infections occur when people inhale aerosolized particles contaminated with virus from dried rodent urine, droppings, or saliva. Rare secondary transmission routes include bites or scratches from infected rodents.

Infection with hantavirus can progress to one of two life-threatening syndromes. The first, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), begins with non-specific early symptoms including fatigue, elevated body temperature, and muscle pain, often followed by headaches, chills, dizziness, and gastrointestinal discomfort. Once the virus progresses to attack the respiratory system, CDC data places the mortality rate at roughly 38%.

The second, more severe form of disease is Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS), which primarily targets kidney function. Advanced cases can lead to dangerously low blood pressure, internal bleeding, and acute kidney failure. Data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health estimates 150,000 new cases of HFRS are recorded globally each year, with the vast majority concentrated in Europe and Asia; over half of all annual cases occur in China. In the United States, where systematic hantavirus surveillance launched in 1993, just 890 confirmed cases were reported across the 30-year period ending in 2023. Still, one globally distributed common strain, Seoul virus, carried by widespread brown (Norway) rat populations, is present across the United States and most other regions of the world.

Unlike many viral pathogens, no targeted antiviral treatment or vaccine exists for hantavirus infection. Current clinical guidance from the CDC centers on supportive care tailored to a patient’s symptoms: this may include supplemental oxygen therapy, mechanical respiratory support, antiviral drugs, and kidney dialysis for patients experiencing renal failure. Severe cases require admission to hospital intensive care units, with many critically ill patients needing intubation to support breathing.

Public health officials emphasize that prevention focuses entirely on eliminating human contact with rodent populations. Core recommendations include sealing structural gaps in basements and attics that allow rodents to enter residential buildings, and wearing properly fitted protective equipment when cleaning up areas with rodent droppings to avoid inhaling contaminated dust.

This cruise ship outbreak marks the second high-profile hantavirus death recorded this year. In February 2025, Betsy Arakawa, wife of Oscar-winning American actor Gene Hackman, died from a respiratory illness caused by HPS, the most common strain of hantavirus in the U.S. Investigators found rodent nests and dead rodent specimens in outbuildings on Arakawa’s property, where she had been staying before her death. Police documents show Arakawa searched online for information comparing flu and COVID-19 symptoms in the days before her death, highlighting the challenge of distinguishing hantavirus’s early non-specific symptoms from more common respiratory illnesses.

Three people have died and at least three others have fallen ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard an Atlantic Ocean cruise ship, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in a statement to the Associated Press on Sunday.

As investigations into the incident continue, global health officials have already verified at least one positive case of the rodent-borne pathogen. Hantavirus, which is distributed across every inhabited continent, is primarily transmitted to humans through direct contact with urine or feces from infected rodents, most commonly common rats and mice. While human-to-human transmission is rare, the virus is capable of spreading between people and can trigger life-threatening respiratory illness if left unaddressed.

According to the United Nations’ health agency, one affected patient is currently receiving intensive care at a hospital in South Africa. Teams are collaborating with national and local authorities to evacuate two other symptomatic passengers from the vessel to receive appropriate medical care.

“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, full epidemiological mapping, and genetic sequencing of the virus to confirm its origin and strain,” the WHO said in its official statement. “Medical care and support are being provided to all affected passengers and crew members currently on the ship.”

Unlike many common viral illnesses, hantavirus infection has no specific targeted treatment or approved cure. However, WHO notes that prompt, early clinical intervention drastically improves a patient’s odds of survival.

While the WHO declined to publicly name the vessel in its initial statement, local South African media outlets have identified the ship as the MV Hondius, a passenger cruise liner sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde off the western coast of Africa. Global shipping tracking platform MarineTraffic confirmed the vessel is a Dutch-flagged cruise ship, and showed it docked in Praia, Cape Verde’s capital, on Sunday evening.

South African health department spokesperson Foster Mohale, quoted in local reporting, shared additional details on the fatalities: the first victim, an elderly male passenger, died directly on board the ship, while his wife later succumbed to the infection after being admitted to a South African hospital.

This recent outbreak marks a return of hantavirus to public attention, just over a year after Betsy Arakawa, wife of legendary late actor Gene Hackman, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico. Hackman passed away one week after his wife’s death at their shared home.

A suspected hantavirus outbreak on an Atlantic Ocean cruise vessel has left three people dead, with multiple additional cases under active investigation, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed to the BBC. The outbreak is centered on the MV Hondius, a polar expedition cruise ship operated by Dutch tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions, which was en route from Ushuaia, Argentina to Cape Verde when illnesses began to spread.

According to official briefings, WHO has verified one case of hantavirus, with five other symptomatic passengers awaiting final testing to confirm infection. One British national remains in intensive care in South Africa following emergency medical evacuation. Tracking of the outbreak shows the first fatality was a 70-year-old passenger who developed symptoms and died on board the vessel. His remains have been taken to Saint Helena, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, pending next steps. The man’s 69-year-old wife also contracted the illness, was evacuated to a medical facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, and later died in hospital care. A third fatality, a 69-year-old British citizen, was also confirmed, while another British passenger remains in intensive care at the same Johannesburg hospital.

Hantavirus infections are most commonly transmitted through environmental exposure, typically contact with rodent urine, feces or saliva from infected animals. While person-to-person transmission is rare, the virus can cause life-threatening respiratory illness in severe cases, making the on-board outbreak a significant public health concern.

Initial reports from South Africa’s Ministry of Health had pegged the death toll at two, which was later updated to three by WHO. The ship departed on its scheduled voyage on March 20, with a planned arrival in Cape Verde on May 4. The MV Hondius is a 107.6-meter polar-class cruise ship that can accommodate up to 170 passengers across 80 cabins.

WHO has activated its cross-border public health response framework to manage the event, which it has classified as a formal public health event. The global health body is coordinating between affected countries, South African public health authorities and the ship’s operator to organize medical evacuations for remaining symptomatic passengers, conduct a comprehensive risk assessment of the outbreak, and deliver medical and public health support to all people still on board the vessel.

In the tight-knit residential settlement of Owino Uhuru on Kenya’s Mombasa coast, the doors of a local lead-acid battery recycling plant closed more than a decade ago. But for thousands of residents who call this neighborhood home, the toxic legacy of that facility has never faded — a warning sign of the hidden public health risks emerging as Africa’s clean energy transition drives an unprecedented surge in battery demand across the continent.

Forty-year-old Faith Muthama, a mother of four, is one of hundreds of residents still living with chronic health damage linked to the site’s contamination. Decades after the plant first began operations, she still cannot complete routine household work without gasping for breath. A 2012 blood test confirmed what her body had already been signaling: dangerous, elevated levels of lead were circulating in her bloodstream. “Life has never been the same,” Muthama says.

The contamination that poisons this community traces back to 2007, when Kenya Metal Refineries EPZ — a local subsidiary of an Indian firm headquartered in Mumbai — opened the recycling plant in the middle of the residential area. For seven years, the facility processed spent lead-acid batteries to extract refined lead for export to India. Residents say toxic waste from operations leached untreated into the neighborhood’s soil and groundwater, sparking a public health disaster that has been linked to more than 20 deaths to date. Even after the Kenyan government shut the plant down in 2014, the embedded lead in local ecosystems continues to sicken generations of residents.

Medical research confirms lead exposure carries irreversible, life-altering health harms: permanent neurological damage, stunted cognitive development in children, and chronic organ damage that cuts life expectancy. Vulnerable groups including children, the elderly and pregnant people face the highest risk, as growing bodies absorb lead far more readily than adults.

In 2025, affected residents won a rare legal victory for environmental justice: Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld a class-action lawsuit against the smelting company, ordering roughly $12 million in damages to be distributed to nearly 3,000 impacted community members. But months after the landmark ruling, activists and residents say the Kenyan state has failed to move forward with timely disbursement of the awarded funds, leaving sick residents without financial support to cover ongoing medical care.

Seventy-year-old Alfred Ogulo, a village elder, has already spent all of his life savings on treatment for lead-related illness. Tests once showed critically high lead levels in his blood, leaving him with permanent nerve damage that leaves him unable to walk without a cane. He lives with persistent chest pain and a chronic cough, a leftover from breathing toxic fumes when the plant was active. “I am just waiting for help as I have exhausted all my resources treating myself,” Ogulo says.

The crisis in Owino Uhuru is far from an isolated case. Public health experts warn that similar lead contamination risks are emerging across the entire African continent, driven by the rapid expansion of renewable energy access that relies heavily on lead-acid battery storage. A February 2025 report from the Centre for Global Development, an independent think tank with offices in Washington and London, finds that the boom in off-grid solar systems — widely seen as a critical solution to closing Africa’s decades-long energy access gap — has caused a sharp spike in demand for affordable lead-acid batteries, and by extension, for battery recycling services.

Lead-acid batteries remain the dominant power storage option across low-income African markets because they cost a fraction of the price of newer alternatives such as lithium-ion batteries. But safe, environmentally sound recycling of these batteries requires expensive specialized infrastructure that most African countries lack. As a result, the majority of lead-acid battery recycling in the region falls to informal, unregulated operators who use low-cost, rudimentary methods that release massive amounts of lead particles into the surrounding air, soil and water.

“Off-grid solar could account for a substantial share of batteries entering the recycling stream in Africa,” explained Lee Crawford, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Global Development and one of the lead contributors to the report. “That’s on top of existing demand from vehicles like cars and motorbikes.”

Crawford notes that the high cost of safe recycling creates powerful economic incentives for operators to cut corners on environmental and public health protections. While banning lead-acid batteries entirely would address the risk, Crawford says such a ban is unfeasible given the current affordability gap with alternative technologies. The only viable path forward, he argues, is investing in scaling up safe, regulated recycling infrastructure across the continent.

The scale of the threat is staggering. Studies conducted across Africa and South Asia estimate that between one-third and half of all children living in these regions have elevated blood lead levels, making lead poisoning one of the most widespread underreported environmental health risks in the world. Weak regulatory enforcement across many African nations amplifies the problem: while most countries have environmental rules on paper that would limit toxic exposure from lead operations, inconsistent implementation and lack of funding for inspections allow unregulated recycling to continue unchecked.

“This is a silent threat,” Crawford said. “It’s often invisible, but it affects health, cognitive development and economic productivity for entire communities.”

The problem of accountability extends far beyond small informal recycling workshops, experts add. Even larger, formal recycling facilities often lack proper pollution control measures, while globalized supply chains for recycled lead make it easy for responsible parties to avoid accountability for contamination. “There needs to be accountability across the entire supply chain,” Crawford emphasized.

A small number of African countries have begun to implement policy solutions to address the gap. South Africa, for example, has introduced a formal producer responsibility framework that requires battery manufacturers to fund and manage end-of-life recycling for their products, creating a structured, regulated system for processing spent batteries. But across much of the continent, especially in countries that import most of their batteries rather than producing them domestically, assigning clear responsibility for safe recycling remains a major policy challenge.

International development donors have increasingly shifted funding toward lithium-ion battery technologies, which do not carry the same lead-related public health risks. But industry analysts project that lead-acid batteries will remain in widespread use across Africa for decades to come, particularly in low-cost off-grid solar systems that bring energy access to remote communities.

For the residents of Owino Uhuru, the crisis remains an immediate, daily reality. Phyllis Omido, who leads the Mombasa-based Centre for Justice Governance and Environmental Action and helped residents bring their class-action lawsuit, says the Kenyan government has failed to uphold the Supreme Court’s ruling, leaving vulnerable residents without the relief they were awarded.

“It is sad that the state has ignored prioritizing the compensation payment as ordered by the court,” Omido said. “These monies would have alleviated the current suffering these vulnerable residents are going through.”

Sixty-year-old Mejumaa Hassan Nyanje, who has lived in Owino Uhuru through the entire crisis, says residents feel abandoned by national leaders and the company that caused the contamination. “Is it fair that we are the ones still chasing justice while the company walks away?” Nyanje said, fighting back tears. “Will we all die before justice is served? It feels like we’ve been abandoned, like our lives and our health don’t matter.”

This climate and environmental reporting from The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP maintains full editorial control over all content.