Health experts say a hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship poses very little risk to the wider public.
The assessment is critical for calming public anxiety following reports of deaths and international travel, as the virus does not spread easily between people.
The outbreak was reported in March 2024 [2, 3]. Passengers had disembarked in the Canary Islands, and cases were subsequently traced to several countries, including Canada [1, 2]. In Ontario, two passengers were identified as infected [5]. Worldwide, there have been eight reported cases linked to the cruise ship, resulting in three deaths [4].
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the virus is well known and spreads only through close contact. He said it poses very little risk to the wider public [1].
The virus primarily spreads through close contact with infected rodent excreta [1, 2, 3]. Because there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, officials believe the threat remains contained to those with direct exposure.
Dr. Theresa Tam, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, said they do not expect onward spread of the hantavirus beyond the identified contacts [3].
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization said the risk of a hantavirus pandemic is very low [2].
“The risk of a hantavirus pandemic is very low.”
While the fatalities associated with this outbreak are significant, the biological nature of hantavirus prevents it from becoming a global health crisis. Because the virus requires specific environmental triggers, namely rodent waste, rather than respiratory droplets or casual contact, it lacks the transmission mechanism necessary for a pandemic, limiting the impact to isolated clusters of exposure.
