Hantavirus is on the rise in Argentina, where a stricken cruise ship
began its journey
[May 07, 2026]
By ISABEL DEBRE
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Officials and experts in Argentina are
scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly
hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise.
The health emergency aboard the ship that's moored across the ocean
comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local
public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects
of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed,
is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the
highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.
Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets
warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can
thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus
from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.
“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that
has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new
tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo
Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no
doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”
The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus
infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over
the same period the previous year.
A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a
severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary
syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the
last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average
mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and
can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO,
whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low. The Andes
strain only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.
Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for
the Andes virus. Argentina on Wednesday said it was sending genetic
material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to help Spain,
Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom detect it.
The cause of infection remains under investigation
Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected
passengers traveled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged
cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end
of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they plan to trace
contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further
spread.
The U.N. health agency, or WHO, says that the first death on board, a
70-year-old Dutch man, happened on April 11. His 69-year-old wife, also
Dutch, died on April 26. The third passenger, a German woman, died on
May 2.
The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks. That makes it
hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving
Argentina for Antarctica on April 1; during a scheduled stop to a remote
South Atlantic island; or aboard the ship.
The province of Tierra del Fuego, where the vessel docked for weeks
before departing, has never seen a case of hantavirus. Before boarding,
the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in
Argentina and Chile, WHO said.
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The rural family home where Rodrigo Morinigo, who died from
hantavirus in January at the age of 14, lived with his family when
he contracted the illness in San Andres de Giles, Argentina,
Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the couple
contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in Ushuaia, according
to two investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing.
Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists' footsteps through the
forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina where some
infections are clustered.
Because early symptoms resemble the fever and chills of a flu, “tourists
might think they just have a cold and not take it seriously. That makes
it particularly dangerous,” Raul González Ittig, genetics professor at
the National University of Córdoba and a researcher at state science
body CONICET, said.
Climate change sends rodents to new frontiers
Argentina in recent years endured a historic drought. But it also had
bouts of unexpectedly intense rainfall, part of a broader pattern of
wild weather that scientists attribute to climate change.
Some of this variability has created conditions that have allowed
hantavirus to flourish, experts say. Dry spells drive animals out of
their usual habitats in search of food and water. Huge amounts of rain
lead to vegetation growth, scattering seeds that attract leaf-munching
rodents.
“When precipitation increases, food availability increases, rodent
populations grow, and if there are infected rodents, the chance of
transmission between rodents — and eventually to humans — also
increases,” Ittig said.
Although hantavirus cases once were limited to the southern reaches of
Patagonia, now 83% of cases are found in Argentina’s far north,
according to the Health Ministry.
Argentina issued alerts early this year
The ministry issued an alert in January about several fatal outbreaks,
including in the most populous province of Buenos Aires.
With rural hospitals underequipped, residents had no clue what hit them.
Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their
14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body
aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles
sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest.
But the feisty fourth grader's breathing worsened. On Jan. 1, they
rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a
hantavirus test came back positive.
"I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone in the world,” Delgado said.
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