Public Health \u2013 Seattle & King County\u00a0was notified by Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that\u00a0three King County residents were potentially exposed to the\u00a0Andes type of\u00a0hantavirus\u00a0linked to the\u00a0MV\u202fHondius\u202fcruise ship.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two\u00a0King County residents\u00a0were sitting\u00a0on an\u00a0airplane\u00a0near an ill\u00a0cruise ship\u00a0passenger\u00a0who was\u00a0removed from the\u00a0aircraft\u00a0before takeoff and later tested positive.\u00a0Both residents have returned to King County. They are both asymptomatic and are\u00a0monitoring\u00a0for symptoms at home in coordination with Public Health \u2013 Seattle & King County.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Public Health is\u00a0also\u00a0aware of a third King County resident who was a passenger on the\u00a0MV\u00a0Hondius\u00a0cruise ship. This resident is currently asymptomatic and is being\u00a0monitored\u00a0for symptoms along with other\u00a0American\u00a0passengers\u00a0at the\u00a0national quarantine center\u00a0at\u00a0the University of Nebraska Medical Center.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, no one in King County has symptoms of\u00a0hantavirus\u00a0and there are no cases of\u00a0the virus\u00a0in\u00a0King\u00a0County.\u00a0The risk\u00a0to\u00a0the public\u00a0remains\u00a0low.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the current news about hantavirus\u00a0may be\u00a0scary,\u201d said Dr. Sandra J. Valenciano, Health Officer and Acting Director for Public Health \u2013 Seattle & King County. \u201cEven though these individuals do not show signs of illness, we\u00a0have strong contact tracing and monitoring in place.\u00a0These are measures that have\u00a0contained\u00a0the spread in\u00a0previous\u00a0outbreaks of\u00a0hantavirus.\u00a0The\u00a0risk of\u00a0this\u00a0virus spreading to residents of King County\u00a0is\u00a0low\u00a0at this\u00a0time.\u00a0This is\u00a0a very different\u00a0situation from when COVID-19 first\u00a0emerged\u00a0\u2013\u00a0COVID\u00a0was\u00a0a novel virus that we\u00a0knew\u00a0very little\u00a0about.\u00a0In contrast,\u00a0we\u00a0have a lot more information about hantavirus and how it spreads.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
About hantavirus<\/p>\n
Hantavirus\u202finfections are rare but can cause severe illness.\u00a0They\u00a0primarily spread\u00a0from contact with wild rodents, especially when people are exposed to their urine, droppings, and saliva. <\/p>\n
The Andes\u00a0virus\u00a0is the only known\u00a0type\u00a0of hantavirus that can spread from person to person, though this type of transmission is rare,\u00a0and\u00a0studies show that\u00a0spread between people\u00a0typically\u00a0requires prolonged, close contact with a person sick\u00a0with\u00a0the Andes\u00a0virus.\u00a0This includes direct physical contact, prolonged time spent in close or enclosed spaces, and exposure to the infected person\u2019s saliva, respiratory secretions, or other body fluids (e.g., kissing, sharing utensils, handling contaminated bedding).\u00a0<\/p>\n
More information about hantavirus:\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally posted on May 12, 2026. <\/p>\n
Want more insights from Public Health \u2013 Seattle & King County? Subscribe to the Public Health Insider from the link at the bottom of the page (mobile) or on the upper right corner of this post (desktop).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public Health \u2013 Seattle & King County\u00a0was notified by Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[63832,316365,210,15110,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-792209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cruise-ship","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-king-county","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116564413001539573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792209","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=792209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}