Seventeen American passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius have arrived back in the United States after a deadly outbreak linked to the voyage claimed three lives and infected multiple passengers.
A U.S. State Department aircraft carrying the passengers landed at Eppley Airfield early Monday morning. The travelers were transported for medical monitoring and evaluation at facilities connected to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, two passengers were transported in biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution.” One passenger has tested positive for hantavirus, while another experiencing mild symptoms is being treated separately at another facility.
Spanish health authorities disputed the certainty of the positive diagnosis, saying one laboratory considered the result a weak positive while a second test came back negative. Despite the conflicting results, U.S. officials chose to proceed with treatment protocols as if the passenger were infected.
The outbreak aboard the luxury expedition vessel has become one of the most unusual hantavirus incidents ever recorded, with health officials noting that human cases linked to cruise ships had never previously been documented.
The ship departed Argentina on April 1 with nearly 150 passengers and crew on a remote sightseeing expedition through the South Atlantic. The crisis began after a Dutch passenger died at sea on April 12. His wife later died in a Johannesburg hospital after becoming ill during travel. A third passenger, a German national, also died during the voyage.
Health authorities say the outbreak may be connected to a birdwatching excursion in southern Argentina attended by the first passenger who died before boarding the cruise.
French officials also confirmed that one evacuated French passenger tested positive for hantavirus after arriving in Paris, with her condition reportedly worsening overnight.
The cruise ship docked Sunday in Tenerife after an international effort to isolate and repatriate passengers. Several countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain, Australia, and the Netherlands, have arranged evacuation and quarantine procedures for their citizens.
British authorities said passengers arriving in the U.K. would remain under medical observation before isolating at home for 45 days, although no symptoms had been reported among that group.
Officials from the World Health Organization are now investigating the source of the outbreak. Public health experts continue to stress that hantavirus transmission risk to the broader public remains low and usually requires close contact with infected individuals or contaminated rodent exposure.
The Hondius is expected to return to the Netherlands for full disinfection procedures once all repatriation efforts are completed.
