17 Americans from hantavirus-hit cruise flying to U.S., HHS says

Seventeen Americans evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship *Hondius* were airlifted to the United States late Sunday, May 11, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Two passengers—one with mild symptoms and another testing 'mildly PCR positive' for the Andes strain of hantavirus—traveled in biocontainment units as a precaution. The *Hondius* docked early Sunday at Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, where nearly 150 passengers and crew from over 20 nations disembarked. Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions arranged immediate flights for repatriation, with local authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO), and international governments assisting. The evacuees are being taken to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR) Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. One passenger with mild symptoms will later be transferred to a second ASPR facility. Six confirmed and two probable hantavirus cases have been linked to the ship, including two deaths. The outbreak was first identified on May 2, weeks after the vessel departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1. The first known illness occurred on April 6, with a death reported on April 11. After disembarking at St. Helena on April 24, the ship anchored off Cape Verde, where two symptomatic patients and one suspected case were removed by evacuation flights. The *Hondius* later sailed to Tenerife before heading to Rotterdam, Netherlands, with its remaining crew, expected to take five days.