Maryland Department of Health<\/a> stressed the risk to the public remains very low.<\/p>\nThe incubation period for hantavirus can range from four to 42 days, which is why health officials continue monitoring people who may have been exposed. Asymptomatic individuals are not considered infectious, according to state and federal health officials.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kari Debbink, a scientist at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s Bloomberg School of Public Health, told WTOP the strain identified in recent reports, the Andes virus, is the only known strain of hantavirus that can spread from person to person.<\/p>\n
No cases have been reported in Maryland since 2019, and none have involved this strain. With the Andes virus, MDH said person-to-person transmission \u201cis rare and generally requires close, prolonged contact with an infected individual or their bodily fluids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most hantavirus cases in the United States are linked to contact with rodents. The Andes virus, which has been reported primarily in South America, is unusual because of its limited potential for person-to-person spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing is on par with what we would expect for this particular virus,\u201d Debbink said, adding that the low risk to the public means people shouldn\u2019t panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a virus that doesn\u2019t spread super efficiently between people. In past outbreaks with Andes virus, what we\u2019ve seen is that it spreads between people that have come into close and prolonged contact. This isn\u2019t something that spreads as readily as COVID or flu, for instance,\u201d Debbink said.<\/p>\n
At least 10 confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus have been linked to the cruise ship outbreak, including three deaths, according to public health officials.<\/p>\n
Health officials are conducting contact tracing connected to the cruise ship, and passengers returning home are being monitored by health officials in their home states, including Virginia.<\/p>\n
The Maryland Department of Health said it is coordinating with federal and international partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n
One Virginian was among the 17 Americans aboard the cruise ship and is now at home being monitored for symptoms.<\/p>\n
Health officials said anyone who develops symptoms such as fever, fatigue or shortness of breath after recent international travel should contact a healthcare provider.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we\u2019re not seeing cases pop up outside of (the World Health Organization\u2019s) contact tracing, we\u2019re in pretty good shape. So far, all the cases have been associated with people that were on the ship,\u201d Debbink said.<\/p>\n
WTOP\u2019s Nick Iannelli contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two residents were not passengers on the ship and are being monitored out of an abundance of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[319297,86947,316365,210,63238,322979,96829,182690,67,132,68,322980],"class_list":["post-790930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-andes-strain","tag-ciara-wells","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-international-travel","tag-kari-debbink","tag-maryland-department-of-health","tag-nick-iannelli","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-virus-spread"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116561326155484286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}