Minnesota health department monitoring 1 who may have been exposed to hantavirus overseas
CBS News • • health
Key Points:
- The Minnesota Department of Health is monitoring a person who may have been exposed to hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, but the individual currently shows no symptoms.
- The potential exposure occurred overseas, and the department stresses that the public risk remains very low.
- Globally, health officials are tracking an outbreak linked to the Dutch-flagged cruise ship, with at least eight confirmed or suspected cases and three fatalities.
- Hantavirus, carried by rodents, can spread to humans, but only the Andes strain is known for limited person-to-person transmission, requiring close contact.
- Between 1993 and 2023, the CDC recorded 890 hantavirus cases in the Upper Midwest, with only two in Minnesota and five in Wisconsin.