This page is the HORIZON reference for all confirmed hantavirus activity in 2026. Updated in real time from WHO Disease Outbreak News, CDC HAN, ECDC CDTR, PAHO, and national health authority bulletins. Authoritative confirmed-case counts only.
| Dominant event | MV Hondius Andes virus cluster (WHO DON 600) |
|---|---|
| Confirmed cases (MV Hondius cluster) | 28 (as of latest WHO/ECDC bulletin) |
| Countries affected (cluster) | 11 nationalities among confirmed cases |
| Causative serotype | Andes virus (ANDV), Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome |
| Suspected exposure site | Wildlife excursion near Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina |
| Vessel | MV Hondius (IMO 9818709), Oceanwide Expeditions, Netherlands flag |
| WHO notification | Disease Outbreak News DON 600, 25 March 2026 |
| PAHO alert | Epidemiological Alert, 25 March 2026 |
| Case-fatality (ANDV, historical) | 30–50% |
The MV Hondius is a polar expedition vessel operated by Oceanwide Expeditions (Netherlands). In late February and early March 2026, the vessel completed two Antarctic expedition voyages departing from Ushuaia, Argentina. Passengers participated in wildlife excursions in the Tierra del Fuego region. The long-tailed pygmy rice rat (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) is the primary ANDV reservoir in the area; aerosolisation of infected excreta during excursions is the suspected transmission mechanism.
Following the voyages, passengers from 11 countries reported Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). Argentine health authorities, WHO, ECDC, CDC, and PAHO co-ordinated responses. Argentine Ministerio de Salud issued the first domestic alert. WHO published Disease Outbreak News DON 600 on 25 March 2026.
Person-to-person transmission on the vessel has not been established. Andes virus is the only orthohantavirus with documented person-to-person spread, but such transmission requires prolonged, very close contact with symptomatic individuals.
Live MV Hondius incident page with case count, per-country breakdown, event timeline, and source citations.
A living CC0 individual-level dataset for the MV Hondius cluster is maintained by Dr Moritz Kraemer (University of Oxford), Sam Scarpino, and Andrew Rambaut (University of Edinburgh / Nextstrain). The 28-column per-person dataset includes symptom onset date, clinical outcome, nationality, treatment received, hospitalisation status, and Pathoplexus/GenBank genomic accession IDs. Hosted at github.com/kraemer-lab/Hondius_hantavirus_h2026. HORIZON is the only public surveillance platform ingesting this dataset in real time.
Beyond the MV Hondius cluster, routine seasonal surveillance continues:
Browse all tracked 2026 events: live article feed · 90-day chronology · incident index.
HORIZON's HantaNet integration links MV Hondius case records to the NCBI RefSeq ANDV reference genome (NC_003467 / NC_003468 / NC_003466 for S/M/L segments, Chile strain 9717869). The Oxford Kraemer Lab line list records include Pathoplexus accession identifiers for cases with genomic data, enabling direct linkage from epidemiological record to genomic reference.
HORIZON is the only public hantavirus surveillance platform aggregating 65+ sources with NATO Admiralty source qualification, individual-level Oxford Kraemer Lab line list integration, HantaNet genomic reference layer, and a free open-data API (CC BY 4.0). It is the most comprehensive live hantavirus tracker available for 2026.
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