The ongoing hantavirus outbreak has sparked growing public health concerns worldwide, with many people wondering whether it could spread in a manner similar to COVID-19. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), three passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean have died following a suspected hantavirus outbreak. The incident took place on the polar expedition vessel MV Hondius, which was traveling between Argentina and Cape Verde.
Questions such as whether lockdowns will be imposed, whether the situation is as severe as COVID-19, and whether mask use is necessary are increasingly being raised by the public. However, during a press briefing on Thursday evening, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, clarified: “This is not COVID, nor influenza, it spreads very differently.” "We currently have no symptomatic passengers or crew onboard. In past outbreaks of Andes virus, human-to-human transmission primarily occurred among close contacts," she added.
Transmission source: Hantavirus is mainly a zoonotic disease, spread from rodents to humans, while COVID-19 spreads person-to-person as a respiratory virus.
Infectiousness: COVID-19 is highly contagious and can spread rapidly through the air, even in enclosed spaces with many people.
Spread pattern: Hantavirus does not transmit efficiently between humans and usually requires prolonged, close contact, leading to localized outbreaks only.
Severity vs spread: Hantavirus can be more lethal on an individual level, but its limited human transmission makes a pandemic unlikely, unlike COVID-19, which can escalate globally due to easy spread.
Experts say hantavirus is unlikely to trigger a pandemic. According to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the current situation is comparable to a past localized outbreak in Argentina and is expected to remain limited if proper public health steps are taken.
She emphasized that hantavirus is not like COVID-19, it is a different virus with a different mode of transmission, currently contained within a confined setting such as the ship outbreak. She added that it does not spread in the same way as the coronavirus and is not the start of another global pandemic.
Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud of the World Health Organization noted that a similar outbreak occurred in Argentina in 2018–19 when a symptomatic person at a social event led to widespread infection. He said the current situation also involves a small, confined setting with close contact, which enabled transmission.
He added that strict public health measures such as contact tracing and isolation can stop the spread, stressing that it does not necessarily have to escalate into a large epidemic.
