Hantavirus: the risks, the science and what you need to know

Short Wave

NPR

News, Life Sciences, Daily News, Astronomy, Nature, Science

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

On May 2, the World Health Organization got an alarming report: People aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean were falling ill. The culprit is now confirmed as hantavirus, a pathogen that some rodents carry that can infect humans in rare, but often deadly, instances. Multiple passengers have died, and more people are showing symptoms. So, we’re talking to Emily Abdoler, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Michigan, about the news – how common is hantavirus in humans, what are the consequences of getting it, and how can at-risk people protect themselves from it?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.0	On May 2nd, the World Health Organization got an alarming report that a ship in the South Atlantic was in trouble, and multiple passengers aboard were severely sick, with symptoms that seemed flu-like, but more serious.
0:23.4	Some cases eventually evolved into a respiratory illness.
0:29.0	And as of this recording, Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock Eastern, three people have died.
0:34.3	And experts have confirmed at least some of those cases were caused by hauntavirus.
0:41.4	Some passengers have since been medically evacuated, but the rest are still on board, socially distancing.
0:44.9	Jake Rosemary is one of them and posted a video to social media.
0:53.0	I am currently on board the MV Hondias, and what's happening right now is very real for all of us here.
0:57.6	We're not just a story. We're not just headlines. We're people, people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.
1:08.6	I can't even imagine the stress.
1:12.7	Emily Abddollar is an infectious disease doctor at the University of Michigan, and she's been following the news.
1:18.4	I had never heard of hauntavirus associated with a cruise ship before.
1:23.5	Hauntavirus infections are rare, but they can become very serious, depending on the strain of hauntavirus, which is often transmitted from rodents to people.
1:32.9	In the U.S., there were only around 900 confirmed cases of hauntavirus between 1993 and 2023, the vast majority occurring in the western U.S.
1:43.7	35% of those cases resulted in death.
1:47.2	In medical school, Emily remembers being taught that people are usually exposed to haunt a virus in rural places.
1:53.4	The classic example is a remote cabin that's been locked up for the winter, now infested with mice.
1:58.4	And it gets opened up for the spring and summer camping season, and humans are exposed to
2:06.4	the droppings and the urine of the rodents and then come down with hauntavirus.
2:14.8	And so the first thing that I really thought about is not knowing the timeline
2:18.9	of the symptoms and how long folks had been on the ship, you know, is the ship infested with rodents?
2:27.5	And as timeline details of this ship started to emerge, Emily had one big question. What species of virus is it? Because only one has
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