The U.S. assures that the risk of hantavirus for its citizens is "very low"

Washington.- The U.S. health authority stated this Tuesday that the risk to the American population from the hantavirus situation is "very low" and assured that it is already coordinating actions with national and international authorities.

The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jay Bhattacharya, indicated in a message posted on X that the agency began coordinating with national and international partners "as soon as" it was notified of a hantavirus situation on the cruise ship M/V Hondius. Bhattacharya added that hantavirus "is not transmitted by people without symptoms" and that contagion requires "close contact". The health authority is monitoring American passengers who were on board the ship and that people in at least three states —Georgia, California and Arizona— are being monitored. However, they specified that "no American has shown symptoms of illness so far."

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The hantavirus outbreak was detected aboard the expedition cruise ship M/V Hondius, which was sailing through the South Atlantic after departing from Ushuaia, Argentina. Spain agreed to receive the vessel in the Canary Islands following a request from the World Health Organization (WHO), while health authorities coordinate medical evacuations, passenger isolation, and possible repatriation plans. The hantavirus is a disease primarily transmitted by infected rodents through saliva, urine, or droppings. It can cause a severe respiratory syndrome, and although some variants can be transmitted between people through close contact, health authorities consider the risk of contagion for the general population to be low.