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Health officials in at least a dozen countries, including the U.S., are tracking dozens of passengers who traveled aboard the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.Those passengers have dispersed across the world and were in five states as of Thursday afternoon: Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia. Health officials in those states said the former passengers, who are not being publicly identified, have not shown any symptoms. Despite the widening international response, World Health Organization officials say the outbreak is not the start of a new pandemic or epidemic.

“While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it and the State Department are closely monitoring the status of Americans on the ship, adding that “risk to the American public is extremely low.”. A passenger still on board the ship described the general mood as calm now that travelers who were exposed have connected with doctors.

“Everyone is keeping high spirit, people are smiling and taking the situation calmly,” passenger Kasem Ibn Hattuta said in an email Thursday.

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Health officials in at least a dozen countries, including the U.S., are tracking dozens of passengers who traveled aboard the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.

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Those passengers have dispersed across the world and were in five states as of Thursday afternoon: Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia. Health officials in those states said the former passengers, who are not being publicly identified, have not shown any symptoms.

Despite the widening international response, World Health Organization officials say the outbreak is not the start of a new pandemic or epidemic.

"While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low," Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it and the State Department are closely monitoring the status of Americans on the ship, adding that "risk to the American public is extremely low."

The atmosphere on board

A passenger still on board the ship described the general mood as calm now that travelers who were exposed have connected with doctors.

"Everyone is keeping high spirit, people are smiling and taking the situation calmly," passenger Kasem Ibn Hattuta said in an email Thursday.

Medical teams have boarded the cruise, Hattuta added, which is contributing to a sense of normalcy after days of worry and concern.

"I've seen several people walking on the outer decks breathing fresh air and some birders trying to spot the different seabirds on the way, but everyone is wearing masks specially when inside the ship and keeping a safe distance," Hattuta said.

Those who remain on the MV Hondius are being asked to stay in their cabins, the WHO said. Cabins are being disinfected, and anyone who shows symptoms will be isolated.

So far, the people still on the vessel have not shown any symptoms.

Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, a passenger, said that when the ship's doctor became ill, he had to step in.

"As things deteriorated and more people got sick and more got seriously ill, I ended up just taking over and trying to keep everybody going," he told news station KTVZ of Oregon.

Kornfeld said the situation has improved since patients were evacuated.

"Fortunately, nobody else has gotten sick in the last six to seven days," the doctor said, adding that other experts have come on board.

"We now have two World Health Organization epidemiologists on the boat. We have two Dutch infectious disease people on the boat. So there's a lot of medical coverage now. "

Dr. Martin Kriz, who has worked on the MV Hondius and its sister ship, said self-isolating aboard a small cruise of that size is nearly impossible because of shared spaces including lounges and dining rooms.

"You can't do much if you're far from land," Kriz said. "You do what you can do."

Cruise ships typically follow a three-tiered protocol for handling infectious outbreaks, he added. The first involves passengers wearing masks, and the highest level calls for passengers to isolate.

Passengers who disembarked

Weeks after the first death on April 11, 29 passengers disembarked on the remote Atlantic island St. Helena without undergoing contact tracing, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement. The dead person was also removed from the vessel.

The company said it was "working to establish" the whereabouts of all those who disembarked April 24 in St. Helena and had contacted all of them. It said the number included six Americans.

Three people aboard the luxury cruise have died. There are five confirmed cases and three suspected infections, according to the WHO.

One person who was on board the MV Hondius is at home in Arizona, another is in Virginia, two are in Georgia, two are in Texas, and an unknown number are back in California, according to authorities in those states. None have reported symptoms of the rare virus, which has an incubation period of up to six weeks. Officials say the risk to the public remains low.

The outbreak is believed to have started following a birdwatching expedition from Argentina to Cape Verde.

According to the company, 114 guests were aboard the ship on April 1 following departure from Ushuaia, Argentina. On April 15, six additional guests joined at Tristan da Cunha, between Ushuaia and St. Helena, bringing the total to 120. At this time, the deceased passenger is included in the tally.

The passengers who left the boat comprise 12 nationalities; the home countries of two people are unknown.

Flight attendant tested

Dutch officials said Thursday that a hospitalized flight attendant who was not a passenger was being tested for hantavirus in the Netherlands.

"I can confirm that a stewardess is in hospital now and she is being tested for the virus," a spokesperson for the Dutch Health Ministry said. The department did not say whether she was ill or showing symptoms of the virus, which is rare but potentially deadly.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Wednesday that a Dutch woman who died after she contracted hantavirus was "briefly" on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam and was removed from the plane before takeoff.

It is not clear whether the flight attendant was on the same flight. KLM said in a statement it does not comment on individual cases "for privacy reasons."

A look at the virus

WHO and national health officials have said person-to-person transmission is possible through close personal contact, such as between couples.

Hantavirus is typically contracted through contact with rodents. The WHO confirmed this week that the outbreak is the Andes strain of the virus, which, unlike other strains, can spread between people through close personal contact.

Health experts have said even that strain is not as easily transmitted as airborne diseases such as influenza or Covid-19.

Hantavirus infection in humans is extremely rare and has never been previously recorded on a cruise ship. CDC data shows there were 890 confirmed cases in the U.S. from 1993 to 2023.

Argentine authorities said that a rodent-trapping program would take place in the city of Ushuaia, where the MV Hondius began its journey, and that they would conduct 2,500 diagnostic tests to identify the outbreak's origin.

A travel vlogger aboard the vessel recorded a video of the captain telling passengers that the ship was "not infectious" after having announced the first death. He told NBC News that passengers were "not well informed" about the unfolding situation.

Oceanwide Expeditions addressed a video that was circulating of the captain's announcement, saying it was made before the person's cause of death was known and that at the time "no evidence of a virus or contagion was present on the vessel."

Where is the ship headed?

The ship is heading north from Cape Verde, off the western coast of Africa, to the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands. The journey is expected to last three to four days, though the leader of the islands' regional government is reluctant to accept the ship.

Spain's Interior Ministry said that the ship was expected to arrive Sunday and that evacuations would begin Monday, "if all goes well."

Virginia Barcones, the secretary general of civil protection and emergencies at the Interior Ministry, said at a news conference Thursday that the U.S. will send an aircraft to pick up the 17 American passengers still aboard the ship.

The three people who have died are a Dutch couple and a German national. A British man is being treated in a hospital in South Africa.

It emerged Wednesday that a man who had left the ship was being treated in Zurich with suspected hantavirus.

Three patients were transported from the MV Hondius on Wednesday for medical treatment in the Netherlands and Germany as health officials shift their focus to locating and monitoring the dozens of people who left the ship along its voyage.

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Cruise ship hantavirus outbreak sparks international effort to track passengers

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Health officials in at least a dozen countries, including the U.S., are tracking dozens of passengers who traveled aboard the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak

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A new virus has been spread:

A woman in the Spanish province of Alicante has tested positive for a hantavirus infection, secretary of state for health, Javier Padilla, told reporters on Friday, according to Reuters.

Hantaviruses are usually spread through rodents, including rats and mice, mostly from exposure to urine, droppings or saliva. Although the viruses can spread through a rodent bite or scratch, such infection is rare, the CDC says.

Hantaviruses may also spread from person to person, but that also is rare and only suspected for one subtype from South America, according to the WHO.

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus.

More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread.

Health officials in multiple states say they're monitoring some passengers who have returned to the U.S. after being aboard the ship for potential hantavirus infections

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

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The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus.

More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread.

Health officials in multiple states say they're monitoring some passengers who have returned to the U.S. after being aboard the ship for potential hantavirus infections.

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

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The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

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Virginia Supreme Court blocks referendum that would have helped Democrats win up to four more US House seats | CNN Politics

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The Virginia Supreme Court voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw the state’s US House map in an April referendum.

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus. More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread. Health officials in multiple states say they're monitoring some passengers who have returned to the U.S. after being aboard the ship for potential hantavirus infections.

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

# data[].attributes.body
Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus.

More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread. Health officials in multiple states say they're monitoring some passengers who have returned to the U.S. after being aboard the ship for potential hantavirus infections.

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

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Seth Brummond pleaded guilty to using the Kik Messaging app to share over 60 videos showing child 🤬 during a roughly four-month period in 2024, per a press release from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.According to court documents, police were alerted to the messages being shared by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The tip later traced back to Brummond, who was arrested after officers staked out his home in December 2024.

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A former Lee’s Summit West High School teacher was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison without parole for distributing child pornography.

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Health authorities across several countries are racing to trace and contain an outbreak of hantavirus after the World Health Organization said that five confirmed infections had been identified among people connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius.

The virus is typically associated with rodents, but it may have passed from human to human aboard the vessel, according to WHO. Since April 11, three people from the ship have died, while a handful of others are sick.

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus.

More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread.

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

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Believe it or not, we’re about a little more than a month away from the start of the 2026 World Cup, which is being played on American soil for the first time in more than three decades.

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From The Sports Desk: World Cup countdown

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Leading up to the games, our NBC News sports team will be listing 26 players to watch in our daily newsletter, “The Sports Desk.”

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Hantavirus live updates: CDC classifies outbreak as 'Level 3' emergency response

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus.

More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread.

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Amid raucous protests Thursday, Republicans in Tennessee enacted a new US House map that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections. The final Senate vote unfolded as demonstrators chanted loudly in the galleries and hallways. Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver stood on her desk in the Senate chamber, holding a banner denouncing the redistricting as a “Jim Crow” effort, then clapping and dancing. Other Democratic senators linked arms in the front of the chamber. Republican leadership quickly adjourned the special session, sending the new map on to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who promptly signed it into law.

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Tennessee Republicans approve map carving up majority-Black US House district | CNN Politics

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Republican lawmakers in Tennessee approved a new US House map Thursday that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

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Global health authorities are working to contain an outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. The total number of confirmed cases associated with the outbreak is increasing, health officials said. To date, three people who were aboard the ship are known to have died of the virus. More than 100 passengers remain on the ship, and the World Health Organization is monitoring their health. Officials said that the "overall public health risk remains low" but that there may be some person-to-person spread. Health officials in multiple states say they're monitoring some passengers who have returned to the U.S. after being aboard the ship for potential hantavirus infections.

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Hantavirus live updates: MV Hondius on its way to the Canary Islands

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The MV Hondius cruise ship, on which the hantavirus infection was identified, is making its way to the Canary Islands.

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The US government has targeted thousands of parents like LT for deportation since Donald Trump took office in January 2025. A Guardian analysis of government records has found that, during the first seven months of his presidency, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children. During this period in 2025, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was deporting about twice as many parents each month compared with 2024.

The records do not detail how many of these children were detained or deported with their parents, and how many families were split up. But the data provides one of the starkest views yet of how Trump’s mass deportation scheme has affected parents and children. In thousands of cases, DHS sought to deport parents who had a different citizenship or nationality than their children, creating major legal and logistical barriers to keeping families together.

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Revealed: The Trump administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 kids in seven months

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The Guardian analyzed ICE records from January-August 2025, as advocates say the family-separation crisis will lead to generational trauma