{"id":11994,"date":"2026-05-13T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11994"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:22:48","slug":"hantavirus-is-very-different-to-covid-heres-why-the-andes-virus-wont-cause-the-next-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/05\/13\/hantavirus-is-very-different-to-covid-heres-why-the-andes-virus-wont-cause-the-next-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus is very different to COVID. Here\u2019s why the \u2018Andes virus\u2019 won\u2019t cause the next\u00a0pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/hantavirus-is-very-different-to-covid-heres-why-the-andes-virus-wont-cause-the-next-pandemic-282595\">The Conversation<\/a> For many people, news of a virus outbreak on a cruise ship immediately brings back memories of COVID spreading when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsw.gov.au\/departments-and-agencies\/the-cabinet-office\/resources\/special-commissions-of-inquiry\/ruby-princess\">in March 2020<\/a>. Of the passengers and crew who disembarked,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.nsw.gov.au\/lc\/papers\/Pages\/qanda-tracking-details.aspx?pk=83060\">575 had COVID<\/a>. The virus then spread to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it\u2019s understandable people are concerned that passengers from the MV Hondius need to be quarantined after potential exposure to Andes virus, a rodent-borne hantavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the comparison with COVID only goes so far. Andes virus is serious and authorities are right to respond cautiously. But experts, including from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/05\/07\/hantavirus-outbreak-andes-virus-not-covid\/\">World Health Organization<\/a>, note it doesn\u2019t have the characteristics needed to become \u201cthe next COVID\u201d. As of May 11, European health authorities&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecdc.europa.eu\/en\/infectious-disease-topics\/hantavirus-infection\/surveillance-and-updates\/andes-hantavirus-outbreak\">have reported<\/a>&nbsp;nine cases linked to the cruise ship, including seven confirmed and two probable cases. Three deaths have been reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five Australians and one New Zealander are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.gov.au\/ministers\/the-hon-mark-butler-mp\/media\/press-conference-with-minister-butler-canberra-11-may-2026?language=en\">being repatriated<\/a>\u00a0to Australia for quarantine and monitoring. The passengers will initially quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience near RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/hantavirus-is-very-different-to-covid-heres-why-the-andes-virus-wont-cause-the-next-pandemic-282595\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation For many people, news of a virus outbreak on a cruise ship immediately brings back memories of COVID spreading when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney&nbsp;in March 2020. Of the passengers and crew who disembarked,&nbsp;575 had COVID. The virus then spread to the community. So it\u2019s understandable people are concerned that passengers from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines","category-hantavirus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11995,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11994\/revisions\/11995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}