New Jersey Alerts Doctors About Cruise‑Ship Rat Virus
New Jersey joins six other regions in a joint warning to medical staff that passengers returning from the MV Hondius cruise may carry hantavirus, a rat‑borne virus.
- Eight passengers tested positive; three have died.
- Seven Americans disembarked last month, and 17 more will leave in the Canary Islands before heading home.
Health officials emphasize that anyone who exited earlier or slipped through contact‑tracing could introduce the disease into U.S. soil.
“Doctors and nurses are key to spotting cases,” says a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins.
“They need to check travel history and look for the right symptoms.”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an advisory stating that widespread transmission in the United States is extremely unlikely at present. Yet clinicians should remain alert for imported cases, and experts predict that more people may be affected in the coming weeks. The overall danger to the public remains low because hantavirus does not spread as easily between people as COVID‑19, which can jump from person to person with casual contact and short incubation times.
Current passengers will fly on a medical repatriation flight to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. From there they will be transferred to the University of Nebraska’s National Quarantine Center for monitoring and assessment over 42 days. Some may be allowed to return home after observation.
The World Health Organization confirmed that the strain involved is Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to transmit from person to person. This detail underscores why careful surveillance is essential, even though the overall risk remains low.
