California monitors four residents who were possibly exposed to hantavirus
LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - Four California residents who were possibly exposed to the deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship were being monitored, state health officials said today, while emphasizing the risk to the general public remains extremely low.
State Public Health Officer Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health, said three of those people were aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, while the fourth individual was exposed during a commercial flight that had yet to take off.
"We understand public concern about this unusual outbreak," Pan said. "Decades of experience in South America have shown that this Andes hantavirus rarely spreads between people. We continue to work with federal and local officials to monitor the health of potentially exposed individuals and prepare for our Californians to come home."
Last week, federal authorities confirmed three California residents were aboard the cruise ship. On Friday, CDPH announced one individual from California returned to the state and is being monitored by public health officials while the other two individuals were flown to a secure federal health facility in Nebraska.
This weekend, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified state officials of an additional contact now under active monitoring due to potential exposure with a confirmed case on a shared flight. That person is also at home and being monitored by their local health department.
Those at the federal facility are expected to return to California once health assessments are done and arrangements have been made to protect their and the public's health.
Currently, public health monitoring protocol includes daily temperature checks, assessment for any symptoms consistent with hantavirus, and direction to modify activities such as limiting outings, interactions with others, and to remain home as much as possible, among other precautious measures.
"The risk to the general public is extremely low right now,'' Pan said.
She acknowledged the hantavirus outbreak harkens back to the coronavirus, but emphasized there are key differences. Pan said there have been decades of experience studying and responding to hantavirus in South America,whereas COVID-19 was a brand new virus that everyone was learning about rapidly.
"If you are a contact and you are flying and you have no symptoms, you are not infected and you are not infecting anyone else,'' Pan said. ``All of our knowledge to date shows that in order to infect other people, you have to be ill. You have to have symptoms, so there's no concern that a contact could infect other people.''
Pan said that prior to response efforts related to this outbreak, the CDPH Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory was the only public health laboratory in the U.S. with a validated diagnostic hantavirus PCR assay, a tool used to conduct testing for hantavirus.
If any exposed individual develops symptoms consistent with infection, California has the capability to test in the state, Pan noted. CDPH VRDL is also providing technical assistance to other laboratories across the country to support testing capacity.
Hantavirus is a group of viruses that spread through the urine, droppings (feces), and saliva of wild rodents. Hantaviruses include both the Sin Nombre and Andes virus strains. The Andes hantavirus identified in the cruise ship outbreak is found in the southern Andes region of Argentina and Chile, according to state health officials.
Andes hantavirus has also been associated with rare human-to-human transmission after close, prolonged contact with an ill infected person.
Andes hantavirus is different from the Sin Nombre hantavirus, which is native to California and North America. Sin Nombre hantavirus has not been associated with person-to-person transmission.
From 1980 to 2025, 99 California residents have been diagnosed with Sin Nombre hantavirus infection, according to the CDPH.
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a rare but severe respiratory illness that can develop following exposure. Early symptoms resemble influenza, can include gastrointestinal symptoms, and can progress rapidly to life-threatening respiratory distress. The fatality rate is approximately 30% to 40%.
There is no antiviral treatment for hantavirus and HPS typically needs aggressive critical medical supportive care.
