There are several hundred cases of Hantavirus in the USA and various parts of South America every year. Doesn't make the news, doesn't turn into a pandemic.
You'll be fine unless you've been in close proximity to someone who's been infected.
this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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To add on to the points here, hantavirus is lethal in a way that doesn't translate to widespread pandemics easily. Coronavirus is unique in that while it was 5:1 more lethal than similarly transmissible airborn viruses, that was the "Goldilocks zone" for a virus with its lethality and transmissibility to do maximum damage. Lots of excess death, but the average person generally only had a slightly rough go of it. Hantavirus has >30% lethality in many forms, and is extremely likely to burn itself out before any sort of epidemic status.
So ultimately, very unfortunate for those that contract it, but its characteristics put it way below pretty much every other airborn illness in terms of what keeps me up at night.
Worried? No. Earmark it though. Every few years there’s a new potential bug it’s just part of being a species, this one looks gnarly but too soon to tell. That being said, wear masks courteously and wash your hands. If things get bad again we’ll all find out together
No need to panic. The virus is rarely transmitted from human to human or via air.
Cruise ships are a hot bed for diseases though: Many people in a confined space going to places with diseases that their body has no resistance against. So your best protection is simply not going near the ship.
On the topic of staff escaping: Given that the ship hasn't been able to dock so far I highly doubt that's true.
I agree but to give some context to the staff escaping, this probably was started because one of the people airvaced to a hospital was a staff member. They didn't "escape" they got sick and needed emergency medical treatment. I can believe someone heard a staff member was no longer on board and warped that into staff "escaping".
this source claims
Authorities in Switzerland also said a former passenger who tested positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. The passenger had left the ship at St Helena and it was unclear how he had travelled to Switzerland or which countries he might have passed through. Swiss authorities insisted there was “no risk” to the public
It also claims
But a limited spread among close contacts has been observed in some previous outbreaks with the Andes strain, which has spread in South America, including Argentina, where the cruise trip started in March.
I thought I read there was also a british man who was a member of the staff, I will look and try to get a source to back that up.
Allegedly this one is confirmed to transmit humans to human (South Africa found it to be the case I believe?) and there’s cases in like Switzerland, it’s not like the disease spontaneously formed and then they quarantined they’ve been getting on and off the boats for weeks before they stopped
Buy the toilet paper now before the shelves are empty.
In France, it was red wine and condoms. But you do you.
I don't need condoms for the same reason I need twice as much toilet paper. I could still go for the wine but it makes the whole experience kind of sad.
@Grimy@lemmy.world @a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca
"Some free advice? You ever get back there, you hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it. Hoard it like it's made of gold. 'Cause it is." (Chuck Shurley, Supernatural TV series, S05E04)
This gives me flashbacks. I close my eyes and I see empty toilet paper shelves. The horror
Whats weird is, unrelated to the pandemic, I always buy the massive pack of toilet paper. I think it's like 28 rolls. And I had bought that JUST before all the panic. It's just how I naturally do this. Buy the big one, and like a year later it runs out.
Then the panic starts, and my mom calls, and says "I was out shopping and picked you up some toilet paper, in case you need it!"
"Oh, I'm good. I just bought some."
"Just take the damn toilet paper! These shelfs are empty! You don't know when you'll get some!"
Gives me ANOTHER of the same size I just bought.
Then my dad calls.
"Hey, I know you sometimes have trouble finding time to go grocery shopping, so I got you some toilet paper. These stores are going crazy!"
"Oh, no no. I have more then enough."
"I already bought it, and I don't think you can return toilet paper."
Gives me a 16 roll pack.
Then my sister calls.
"Heeeeeey, I was out at Costco earlier, and these stores are running out of toilet paper. Luckily I got each of us a 60 roll pack."
"Nooooooo.......I have so much as it is! Mom AND dad gave me a bunch."
"Well I don't have room in my house for all this! I got one for you, and one for (other sister), and one for mom!"
gives me 60 more rolls
Then my other sister calls.
"Heeeeey, so (first sister) got me 60 rolls of toilet paper. I don't like the costco brand. So I'm giving it to you."
"You know she already got me one, rigUS #+ "Well I don't like it. So now its yours."
gives me ANOTHER 60 rolls
Then my aunt called.
"Hey do you need toilet paper?"
"NO!"
"Geez, don't get mad at me! I'm just helping you out. Take this, and only use it for emergancies."
gives me a 4 roll pack
I still have a decent amount of toilet paper. Both 60 packs remain unopened. I haven't looked in that closet to see exactly where I am, but I think I'm at like 60% unused.
I'm not sure whether I'm envious of your familial connections or glad I avoided similar ones.
Three patients suspected of having the hantavirus were evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship and were on their way to the Netherlands for medical care, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The three are German, Dutch and British nationals, including a British crew member, according to the WHO.
Tranquilo, Chuy. Better not to fret over that what one can't control.
Not very. There are a lot more "this could turn into a pandemic" incidents that don't turn into pandemics than those that do.
Not at all. Not even a little bit.
~~Human-to-human transmission is extremely rare.~~
~~You get it from mouse shit. It's significantly more likely that the people who got it were all exposed to the same mouse shit than it is that they gave it to each other.~~
~~You should be way more worried about the mice on that ship coming off and shitting.~~
Edit: This strain is a little contagious. Still shouldn't be concerned.
Starting this off with: I am not an epidemiologist and most of the epidemiologist I'm seeing online aren't yet too concerned
That being said, they have not found any rodents on the ship, though that does not mean they didn't just miss them in their search. The version on the ship has been confirmed to be the Andes Virus (ANDV) which is human-to-human transmissible in a way that most hantavirus are not
It's hard to say exactly how the virus will behave outside of a cruise ship (which are known for spreading diseases more than other locations), but we can potentially look at a past outbreak in 2018 in a small town for an idea
In this work, we described the isolation of the strain responsible for the largest ANDV PTP transmission outbreak, which occurred in the small town of Epuyén and began on November 2, 2018. This strain, ARG-Epuyén, exhibited a high capacity for PTP transmission, necessitating the implementation of quarantine measures to curtail further spread [8]. The median reproductive number (the mean number of secondary cases caused by an infected person) was 2.12 before control measures were implemented and subsequently dropped to below 1.0 by late January
Not very, it spreads human to human but much less aggressively than flu or covid.
"We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the director of epidemic and pandemic management at the World Health Organization, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.
…
However, Debbink says, if this is indeed human-to-human transmission, the virus does not seem to be highly transmissible because then "you would have a lot more cases on the cruise ship, just from people being around each other in pretty close proximity."
No, because you can't do anything about it anymore than you could do about COVID.