Overview
- WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the declaration on Thursday, July 2, 2026, after the prescribed observation period for exposed passengers and crew ended with no new infections.
- Health authorities linked 12 confirmed hantavirus infections to the cruise ship and assessed that one person who had previously died was likely infected.
- Laboratory testing identified the Andes type of hantavirus in cases, a strain carried by rodents that is noted for rare person-to-person transmission.
- The MV Hondius crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the Spanish Canary Islands on May 10, where most passengers disembarked, and officials used a maximum incubation window of about six weeks to guide monitoring.
- The episode highlights the difficulty of managing infectious clusters tied to international travel and may prompt reviews of cruise disembarkation procedures, cross-border communication, and extended passenger follow-up.