The last eight American passengers who endured 42 days in a specialized hospital quarantine unit after exposure to an unusual hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that killed three people have left the Nebraska facility.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials on Monday (June 22, 2026) confirmed the end of the quarantine.

“Through close collaboration among federal, state, and local partners, HHS helped protect the American people, contain potential risks, and bring this response effort to a successful conclusion,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.

More than 120 people were evacuated from the MV Hondius in Spain’s Canary Islands early last month — including the 18 Americans who wound up in the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha — though most were from other countries.

In addition to those people evacuated by health officials in full protective suits, at least 30 other passengers had left the ship earlier before the outbreak was documented. That included seven Americans, who were allowed to monitor for any symptoms at home. When the ship eventually docked in the Netherlands, 25 crew members and two medical personnel were on board and had to quarantine.

The World Health Organization didn’t immediately respond Monday to questions about the status of all the other people who had to quarantine around the globe. A total of 13 cases of the virus, including the three who died, were identified among people who were on the ship.

One of the American passengers, Angela Perryman, had been held against her will and against the recommendation of a government medical expert. She said in an interview Monday passengers were told that the quarantine monitoring period ended Sunday at 2pm. She left on a flight that evening. Others were flying out Monday, she said.

“We were locked in our rooms until 1:55. And at 2 o’clock, ‘OK, well, everybody walk out and go home,’” Perryman said, speaking from her Florida home.

Some stayed the night elsewhere in Omaha, but Perryman pushed for a flight home that evening. The government paid for the flights, she said.

Seven of the last remaining patients remained there voluntarily, but Perryman was forced to stay as the result of a controversial quarantine order that was deemed unnecessary even by some health officials.

Perryman and seven others spent six weeks at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. That monitoring period was set because symptoms of hantavirus have taken as long as 42 days to appear in previous outbreaks. None were reported to have develop the illness. The seven remained there voluntarily, but Perryman was forced to stay as the result of the controversial quarantine order.

Ten others who were at the facility were allowed to leave earlier under an agreement that they would be closely monitored in their home states.

The passengers were on a Dutch cruise ship, the MV Hondius, traveling in the South Atlantic that became the setting of a hantavirus outbreak that killed three people, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings, but the hantavirus that caused the outbreak, called the Andes virus, may be able to spread between people in rare cases, health officials say.

Some 25 Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked in April and 18 who remained on board. Sixteen were evacuated to the Nebraska quarantine unit in Omaha on May 11, and two other Americans joined them a few days later.

During the passengers’ stay, local Omaha restaurants and food trucks delivered special meals for them to enjoy almost daily. And the nurses sometimes made Starbucks runs to deliver some of the passengers’ favorite drinks.

The rooms they stayed in are like hotel rooms equipped with a desk, television, internet connection and exercise equipment to help the passengers pass the time.

One of the passengers, Jake Rosmarin, on Monday morning posted an “I’m finally coming home” video that showed him leaving his room at the quarantine center, hauling two suitcases and a backpack and turning out the lights as he walked out the door. Later Monday, he posted a video of the Omaha skyline shot out the window of his plane as he headed home to his fiance in Boston and his family.

Rosmarin, who is a travel blogger, posted a tearful video Sunday thanking the staff of the quarantine unit, the Omaha community and his family and friends who helped him get through quarantine.

“I want to thank the Omaha, Nebraska, community for welcoming us with open arms and showing us complete kindness and generosity. And a big thanks to all of you who have helped me get through this because I really don’t know if it would have been as easy without the support from strangers,” he said while wearing a Nebraska Huskers sweatshirt that someone sent him.

Perryman had a darker take. She was forced to stay after Florida officials refused a federal demand that the state provide round-the-clock surveillance on her if she were returned home. This even as they had started making travel arrangements for the passengers weeks ago, she said.

“Nobody actually expected anybody to get sick at that point,” she said. “Everybody was well aware that we were all going home on commercial flights.”

She called the six-week quarantine “a political stunt.”

Published – June 23, 2026 04:44 am IST

The cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, leaves the port of Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A passenger of the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak, boards a EuroAtlantic Airways aircraft bound for Canada at Tenerife Sud airport, Canary Islands, Spain, on May 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak, board a EuroAtlantic Airways aircraft bound for Canada at Tenerife Sud airport, on May 10.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital caring for the sickened passenger said Tuesday (May 12, 2026).

The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, 9 of which have been confirmed.

Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The French passenger hospitalised in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, said Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.

He said the woman is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them some time to recover. Lescure called it “the final stage of supportive care.”

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

The director of the World Health Organisation said confirmed and suspected cases have only been reported among the cruise ship’s passengers or crew.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general. He added: “But of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.”

The latest person confirmed to be infected is a Spanish passenger who tested positive for hantavirus after being evacuated from the ship, Spain’s Health Ministry said Tuesday (May 12, 2026). The passenger was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.

Health authorities say it is the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.

Argentina sending experts

Argentina’s Health Ministry said Tuesday (May 12, 2026) a team of scientific experts will be dispatched in the coming days to investigate the origin of outbreak.

A Dutch couple, identified by the WHO as the first cruise passengers infected with hantavirus, spent several months in Argentina and neighbouring South American countries before boarding the cruise ship. The husband and wife later died.

Argentine officials have said the couple took a bird-watching tour that included a stop at a garbage dump where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.

The Health Ministry said its team will investigate the landfill and other locations the couple visited where rats known to carry the virus are found, although local officials in the province where the cruise departed have challenged the theory it began there.

The evacuation of the MV Hondius complete

A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew were escorted from the ship to shore in Tenerife by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks in a carefully choreographed effort that ended Monday (May 11, 2026) night.

Two aircraft arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven overnight carrying Dutch nationals as well as passengers from Australia and New Zealand and crew members from the Philippines. All were placed into quarantine, according to the Dutch government.

Some crew stayed aboard the ship and set course for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, said ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

WHO chief Tedros has advised that returning passengers should stay in quarantine, either in their homes or in other facilities, for 42 days. He added that WHO cannot enforce its guidance, and that different countries may handle the monitoring of passengers without symptoms in different ways.

Dutch hospital staff quarantined

Twelve employees at a Dutch hospital where a passenger from the Hondius is being treated have to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids, Radboud University Medical Centre said in a statement Monday (May 11, 2026) night.

The “risk of infection is low,” the hospital said, but it was requiring the dozen employees to go into preventive quarantine as a “precaution.” The hospital in the eastern city of Nijmegen received a passenger last week from one of the evacuation flights that landed in the Netherlands and the person has since tested positive for hantavirus.

Blood and urine from the patient should have been handled “according to a stricter procedure,” the hospital said.

Published – May 13, 2026 06:41 am IST

Here is a roundup of which countries have confirmed or probable cases of nationals infected by hantavirus after the outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius, according to the World Health Organisation.

Among living patients, seven cases have been confirmed and an eighth is listed as “probable”, according to the WHO, the UN health body and certain national health authorities.

In addition, three people have died, with two of those confirmed as having hantavirus and one probable case, the WHO said.

Other suspected cases and potential close contacts of infected people are being investigated, according to health authorities.

Netherlands

Two Dutch people from the ship died from the virus and a third has been confirmed to have contracted it.

A Dutch couple who had travelled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 were the first fatalities.

The husband, 70, showed symptoms on April 6 and died on April 11. His body was taken off the ship during its April 22-24 call at Saint Helena island in the south Atlantic.

No hantavirus test was carried out and he is considered a “probable case”, according to the WHO.

His 69-year-old wife also left the ship at Saint Helena, feeling unwell. Her health deteriorated during an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and she died in hospital a day later, with hantavirus confirmed on May 4.

The third Dutch case was the ship’s doctor, who reported symptoms on April 30. A test showed him positive for the Andes strain of the virus on May 6.

He was evacuated to the Netherlands when the ship stopped off Cape Verde and was stable while being treated in isolation.

Britain

Two British nationals have been confirmed as infected and one is classed as a “probable” case.

One British man became ill on April 24 and was evacuated three days later from the Atlantic island of Ascension to South Africa, where he was placed in intensive care. Hantavirus was confirmed on May 2 and the Andes strain was confirmed through sequencing.

A second British man working as a guide on the ship reported symptoms on April 27 and tested positive on May 6.

He was evacuated to the Netherlands on May 7 from Cape Verde and was stable while being treated in isolation.

A third British man left the Hondius on April 14 on the South Atlantic Archipelago of Tristan da Cunha and was treated in isolation there. He reported symptoms on April 28. The WHO listed him as a “probable case” pending laboratory results.

British paratroopers and medics parachuted onto the island to deliver urgent medical supplies for him.

Germany

A German woman who had a fever on April 28, and later developed pneumonia, died on May 2 on board the ship.

A post-mortem sample was sent to the Netherlands with the evacuated patients, where tests confirmed infection by the Andes virus.

Her body remained on board the Hondius, which was to leave for the Netherlands from the Spanish island of Tenerife late Monday (May 11, 2026).

Switzerland

A Swiss man disembarked from the Hondius in St Helena on April 22 and flew to Switzerland on April 27 via South Africa and Qatar.

He started suffering symptoms on May 1 after arrival in Switzerland. He was treated in isolation and tested positive for the Andes virus on May 5.

France

A French woman repatriated from the Hondius felt unwell late on Sunday (May 10, 2026) and tested positive for hantavirus, France’s Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. She added that the woman’s condition worsened during the night.

United States

One of 17 American citizens repatriated from the ship tested “mildly PCR positive” for the virus, while another had “mild symptoms”, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Sunday (May 10, 2026).

The passengers are being taken to a specialised centre in Nebraska, while the person with mild symptoms will be taken to a second centre, the health department said.

Spain

A Spanish passenger evacuated from the disease-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship has tested positive for hantavirus but was not suffering symptoms, Madrid’s Health Ministry said late on Monday (May 11, 2026).

The passenger “received a positive result from a PCR test done on his arrival” at the Gomez Ulla military hospital in Madrid, where he was being kept in isolation, the ministry said. It added that the “final results will be known in the coming hours” and the other 13 Spanish evacuees had tested negative for the time being.

Published – May 12, 2026 06:42 am IST

An ambulance departs the air base on the day passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak, arrive at the Eindhoven Air Base, Netherlands on May 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A general view of the cruise ship MV Hondius stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 3, 2026. An outbreak of “severe acute respiratory illness” on board a cruise ship in the Atlantic has left two people dead and a third in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa’s Health Ministry told AFP on May 3, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A health alert has been issued in the state of Arizona, in the United States, after a rodent-borne hantavirus killed four people. The virus spreads to humans through droplets from the urine, saliva, or faeces of the rats.

From January to July, the Arizona Department of Health Services documented seven instances of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a serious and occasionally lethal respiratory disease.

Two cases related to this deadly virus have also been found in California. The virus, primarily carried by deer mice in the Grand Canyon State, causes symptoms such as fever, headache, and muscle pain, which can rapidly progress to difficulty breathing. While hantavirus is not spread from person to person, it can occur in various regions and is not limited to a specific area.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied disease syndromes in people worldwide. This can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), the CDC website says.

Symptoms:

Hantavirus symptoms start with fatigue, fever, muscle aches, headaches, chills, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Late symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath, with a 38% mortality rate for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) symptoms appear 1-8 weeks post-exposure, causing headaches, pain, fever, chills, nausea, and blurred vision. Severe cases may lead to low blood pressure, shock, vascular leakage, and kidney failure. Recovery can take weeks or months.

Treatment:

The CDC says there is no specific treatment, cure, or vaccine for hantavirus infection. However, if the infected are recognised early on and are provided medical care in an intensive care unit, they may do better. In intensive care, patients are intubated and given oxygen therapy to help them through the period of severe respiratory distress.

Prevention:

According to the Centres for Disease Control, rodent control is the primary necessity to prevent hantavirus infections. Contact with rodent urine, droppings, saliva, and nesting materials should be avoided when cleaning rodent-infested areas.