29 Passengers Got Off Hantavirus Cruise Ship After First Death--Flight Attendant Hospitalized With Symptoms

[Liberal In Texas]

A 69-year-old Dutch woman—whose husband died on board the ship—had briefly boarded a KLM flight from Johannesburg on which the now hospitalized attendant was serving on board.

The elderly woman—whose hantavirus infection has been confirmed by authorities—later deboarded the plane after worsening symptoms and died in a hospital in South Africa.

Authorities in the Netherlands also confirmed that a KLM flight attendant who was in contact with a now deceased passenger has been hospitalized in Amsterdam with symptoms and is being tested for a hantavirus infection.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/05/07/29-passengers-got-off-hantavirus-cruise-ship-after-first-death-flight-attendant-hospitalized-with-symptoms/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Boy does this disease sound dangerous. The Flight Attendant wasn't even in contact with the ill passenger that long!

[Cheezoholic]

1. RFKjr probably says drinking skunk piss will cure it n/t

[UpInArms]

2. Viruses are extremely contagious

And this story just gets more horrifying

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. Human to human transmission of Hantavirus is rare. Nt

[LonePirate]

13. It's not rare with this specific version of the virus.

It certainly seems like it was transmissible aboard a cruise ship given how a doctor on the ship contracted it. So it would be even more transmissible on an airplane with even more cramped conditions and no outside airflow.

This really has the potential to explode if that flight attendant tests positive for it.

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. I guess we're about to find out. Nt

[UpInArms]

14. This strain appears to be the Andes version

and has personal to person transmission ability

[Ms. Toad]

15. It depends on the virus.

This one is - generally - not contagious from human to human.

But there is a variation which can be. This appears to be that variation.

[choie]

3. Wasn't this the disease that killed

Gene Hackman and his wife?

[GreatGazoo]

7. Only his wife - he never got it

Gene Hackman passed from "severe heart disease, complicated by advanced Alzheimer's disease and kidney disease, at the age of 95"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman#Death

[hlthe2b]

10. Yes. But N. American variants of Hantavirus are not spread person-to-person. This Argentinian (Andes) variant

appears to be. All are likewise spread through the urine/feces of infected rodents, but the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome first described in the US 4-corners region in 1993 and since studied in great detail, has never been shown to be spread person to person (PTP). There has been some evidence for a number of years that the Andes variant seen in Chili and Argentina "can" be, albeit the extent of risk was not clear. This outbreak (unfortunately) may both confirm and expand that knowledge. But, like pneumonic plague, this can be quite serious and high level respiratory precautions need to be taken while examining, treating, transporting these patients, as is now occurring given the evidence of PTP spread.

Antivirals have not been found to be useful in prior strains/cases, but interferon may be. Intensive respiratory interventions may buy time for the lungs to somewhat heal, but there is a mortality rate of about 38%--at least in the untreated. Early cases in the US that were treated in major hospitals of New Mexico and Arizona sometimes received ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation--a technique to provide both cardiac and respiratory support), but that is an extremely intensive hands-on procedure that is not available in many places and is not clearly helpful in all cases).

[Johonny]

11. Not sure if its this virus strain

Thus strain appears to be from the Andes. This one is known to spread by human contact.

[Lovie777]

4. Our current government is worthless................

I hope states that care are monitoring this and will advise their constituents of the dangers while their state labs are figuring out the medicines to combat it.

[GreatGazoo]

5. symptoms / confirmed

Will monitor for developments but it stands to reason that if it was easily transmitted then most of the ship passengers would have been infected.

This YT channel is quadruple board-certified physicians doing continuing education for certified physicians. Best info available:

[edhopper]

9. Thanks

it never made sense to me that they caught it on the ship.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Hanta is usually associate with rodents - mice, bats in the US

On a cruise ship, maybe due to rats at various ports?

[superpatriotman]

8. Maybe I watch too many movies

But this sounds like the plot of a very scary horror film.

[IcyPeas]

16. The dutch couple went to a bird-watching tour at a garbage dump:

Hantavirus is a rare, rodent-borne illness that usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching tour at a garbage dump before boarding the cruise, according to two officials.
.....
Pursuing a hypothesis that the couple was infected by exposure to rodent droppings during a bird-watching tour at a landfill in Ushuaia, the government said it will send technical teams from the state-funded Malbrán Institute to analyze the possible presence of the virus in Ushuaia and the surrounding Tierra del Fuego Province.

Live: The Latest: Cruise ship hantavirus patients arrive in Europe for treatment - Reading Mode

https://share.google/dsQyMtt0A3Fp2sdyT

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

18. One country wouldnt let a plane unload, had 2 people from the cruise onboard