How hantavirus broke out, spread fear globally

Exotic locales, close ship quarters a deadly combination

- By RONG-GONG LIN II

THE MV HONDIUS last month departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, shown on Wednesday. Hantavirus appears to be expanding its range in that country.

(EDRIEN ESTEVES AFP/Getty Images)

The voyage was marketed for explorers eager to venture to “the edges of the map,” from Antarctica to some of the most remote islands in the world.

It would be a tantalizing trip for tourists with an appetite for adventure — less about trips to the spa and lounging by the pool than a chance to see landscapes few humans have ever laid eyes upon.

But this call of the wild was ultimately among the factors that turned the MV Hondius into the epicenter of the first-ever deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard a modern cruise ship. Eleven cases have been linked to the outbreak so far. Three people are dead, and two others are in intensive care.

The incident — with a few uncomfortable echoes of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — has sparked concerns and questions. Chief among them: Was this a freak occurrence, or a sign of things to come?

“I think it's both,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease expert at UC San Francisco.

Hantavirus had previously been an obscure illness. Typically spread through exposure to infected rodents’ urine and droppings, it’s notoriously difficult to diagnose and has no specified antiviral treatment.

It was definitively identified relatively recently, in a field rodent near the Hantan River in South Korea in 1978, and it finally explained the mystery cause of the ‘Korean hemorrhagic fever’ that infected thousands of United Nations troops during the Korean War.

Though rare, the disease has drawn attention in the U.S. over the decades due to its incredibly high case-fatality rate: up to 50% among the strains that circulate in the Americas.