APTOPIX Hantavirus Ship
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026.
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MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities on Friday were preparing to receive more than 140 passenge…
The head of the World Health Organization is seeking to reassure residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife worried about the anticipated arrival there of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship. He issued a direct message to them Saturday stressing that the virus is “not another COVID.” The MV Hondius has more than 140 passengers and crew on board. It is headed to Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa. It is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday. Once there, the passengers and some crew will disembark. Officials say no one on the ship is currently showing symptoms of hantavirus.
Public health experts are questioning the U.S. government's response to the hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship that involves Americans. President Donald Trump says “we seem to have things under very good control.” But experts and former government health officials say the response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been feeble compared with how it dealt with similar outbreaks in the past. They say the CDC’s diminished role in the hantavirus outbreak is an indicator that the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was.
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