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Hantavirus live updates: Patient in France presenting 'severe form' of virus

The French patient is "in intensive care in a serious condition."

ByChristopher Watson, Ivan Pereira, Jon Haworth, Mary Kekatos, Nadine El-Bawab, Leah Sarnoff, and Kevin Shalvey
Last Updated: May 12, 2026, 3:39 PM EDT

The total number of confirmed and probable cases of hantavirus onboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has risen to 11, including two people confirmed to have died from the virus and one person who remains suspected to have died from the virus.

Passengers disembarked the cruise ship in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, to be transferred to charter flights back to their home countries.

On Monday, 16 American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; 15 are in the quarantine unit and one person who tested positive is in the biocontainment unit, officials said. Two other American cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta for "further assessment and care," officials said.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
May 8, 10:44 am

What is hantavirus and how does it spread?

Here's what you need to know about hantavirus including what it is, how it spreads, how it's treated and if there are any prevention methods:

What is hantavirus?

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause serious illnesses and death, according to the CDC.

Stock photo of a colorized electron micrograph of the Hantavirus.
Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Lib/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

How does hantavirus spread?

Hantaviruses may also spread from person to person, but that also is rare and only suspected for one subtype from South America, according to the WHO.

Read more about hantavirus here.

May 07, 2026, 11:54 AM EDT

'This is not the start of a COVID pandemic': WHO official

World Health Organization epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said Thursday that the current hantavirus outbreak onboard the MV Hondius is not the same as the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I want to be unequivocal here. This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic," Van Kerkhove said. "This is an outbreak that we see on a ship."

PHOTO: Director of epidemic and pandemic management and US infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove speaking during a virtual press conference on the hantavirus cluster at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, May 7, 2026.
Director of epidemic and pandemic management and US infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove speaking during a virtual press conference on the hantavirus cluster linked to a cruise ship travel, at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, May 7, 2026.
Christopher Black/WHO/AFP via Getty Images

Van Kerkhove further noted that hantavirus doesn't spread in the same way coronaviruses do, but rather requires "close, intimate contact."

Anais Legand with the WHO said that a ship makes “a very specific environment” for transmission, but that there was no indication that there is something unusual about the virus.

-ABC News' Joseph Simonetti and Zoe Magee

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