Passengers who left cruise early monitored for hantavirus in U.S., worldwide

The effort to monitor the spread of hantavirus from a cruise ship currently off the west coast of Africa is expanding, including in the United States, after health officials confirmed the virus on the ship is the rare strain that is transmissible from human to human. Twelve countries are currently monitoring people who had disembarked the cruise ship before cases of hantavirus were confirmed, the World Health Organization said at a press conference Thursday. Those countries are Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts And Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Two residents in Georgia and one in Virginia are among those being monitored for signs of the rare and often deadly disease after they returned home from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of the outbreak. All three are in good health and showing no signs of the virus, according to the departments of health in Georgia and Virginia. An unspecified number of California residents are also being monitored, the state's health department said, with none showing signs of the illness or infection. But three people who were on the cruise have died, including a couple from the Netherlands and another woman from Germany, according to the World Health Organization. The Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius is anchored off Praia, Cabo Verde, May 6, 2026. …