After an outbreak of the Hantavirus on a cruise ship in the Netherlands, news of this outbreak has been going viral. There have been daily Tiktok updates, rumors, and conspiracy theories that have been circulating everywhere causing many teens and adults to worry about America’s future. This is for all the teens and people in the media who believe that the best solution was to blow the boat up, I’m here to tell you that that would have done nothing good for anyone. For all the people out there wearing masks paranoid about catching the virus, put down your phone, read a real news article about the virus, put your mask away, and enjoy the summer weather. 

After the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020 causing the U.S. to completely shut down, many are worried that the Hantavirus may have the same effect. 

The problem with the news around this virus is that a lot of people who talk about it on social media share their opinions and conspiracies about the virus, rather than facts and evidence. So it is time to clear the air about what is really happening with the virus based on professional research. 

Hantavirus, better known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, was discovered during the Korean War in 1951. During the war more than 3000 cases of Korean Homorrhagic Fever were reported in UN troops, the Homorrhagic fever was another name for the Hantavirus. according to The National Library of Medicine.

For people who are wondering how the virus got its name, the Hanta virus was named  the Hantan after the name of the river Hantan in South Korea.

Hantavirus isn’t like a typical fever; it is a rare group of more than 20 different viruses combined. It is spread through exposure to infected urine, saliva, mice feces, and rat feces. 

The main symptoms of hantavirus include a high fever, chills, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, coughing, shortness of breath, chest pains, and gastrointestinal issues.

On May 2, a group of passengers on a cruise ship was reported to the World Health Organization because several were struggling with severe respiratory illness. The cruise ship was small with only 147 passengers aboard. 

According to the World Health Organization, “The vessel departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April 2026 and followed an itinerary across the South Atlantic, with multiple stops in remote and ecologically diverse regions, including mainland Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, and Ascension Island. The extent of passenger contact with local wildlife during the voyage, or prior to boarding in Ushuaia remains undetermined.” 

Many people online speculate that the virus started from people being exposed to rats and mice on the ship, which could be the case but we may never know the starting point of the outbreak.

The cases on the ship were caused by the Andes virus which is one of the many variations of hantavirus. The Andes virus is the only variation that can spread from human to human. Right now, 11 out of the 147 passengers aboard the ship are affected by the virus. 9 were confirmed cases while 2 were suspected. 

The outbreak, unfortunately, has caused 3 total deaths so far. A 70-year-old Dutch man developed symptoms on April 6 and then died 5 days later. The second death was a 69-year-old Dutch woman who was the wife of the Dutch man. She died on April 26. And the third death was a German woman who died on May 2.

After hearing that people died from the severe symptoms of the virus, many people started to panic. After the pandemic in 2020 people are extremely paranoid that something like that could happen again. But medical professionals and researchers continue to emphasize the point that hantavirus does not spread as rapidly as COVID-19 does. 

The difference between COVID-19 and hantavirus is that hantavirus replicates from inhaling contaminated dust and rodent droppings that go deep in the lungs and bloodstream. This is different from COVID-19 because it is not spread in the air through just breathing, talking, or coughing. 

According to Harvard Health Publishing, “Hantavirus infections are not considered a significant risk to the public because of how rare they are and how rarely the virus spreads from person to person.”

The ship docked on May 10 at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The passengers were escorted off the boat in hazmat suits and then transferred to flights where they were returned to their home countries.

18 American citizens were flown home and taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for a 42-day monitoring and isolation period. During this time the American citizens who were in isolation were upset that they could not isolate themselves in their own homes.

The American passengers quarantined for  nine more days before they were free to go home on May 31. Currently, they are still being heavily monitored and none of them show symptoms of hantavirus. 

Because of all this news people on social media became paranoid. There were videos claiming that hantavirus was the new COVID-19 and that it was spreading to other people. There was even a rumor that someone in Illinois had caught the virus. However, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the state was investigating a potential case but the person was not found to have the disease.  

This is a strong example of how social media can take a story that they don’t know the full context of and post their worries and opinions online like it is a fact. 

And while uninformed people are being distracted by hantavirus, an actual outbreak of a more deadly virus has been spreading in another part of the world. 

Once again Africa is dealing with a major outbreak of the Ebola virus. This time the outbreak is focused in the two provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ituri, and North Kivu.

Right now there are 600 cases of Ebola, with 51 confirmed cases. The outcome of this is at least 139 deaths as of late May.  

Ebola is a rare but harmful virus that humans and animals can catch. It is a severe, often fatal hemorrhagic fever caused by the Orthoebolavirus. Unlike the Hantavirus Ebola is transmitted through contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. The result of having Ebola are a high fever, internal bleeding, and organ failure. 

According to the New York Times, the World Health Organization’s general director said that cases of Ebola are definitely spreading, but the outbreak is unlikely to become a global threat.

The World Health Organization has faced a lot of backlash because of its delayed response to this outbreak. Even the U.S. Secretary of State said that they had been “a little late to identify this thing unfortunately.”

However, some people also blame the Trump administration and DOGE for weakening the W.H.O., cutting its current budget by $500 million. The administration also shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development last year–an organization that has played a major role in containing previous outbreaks. 

Disease specialists have claimed that these actions have caused the W.H.O to become a lot worse. The budget cuts have caused a loss of workers, laboratory support, resources, and collaboration between counties. 

To stop the spread of Ebola the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is  enhancing  public health screenings, and monitoring travel for people coming from infected areas. Non U.S. Passport holders have been restricted entry into the U.S. if they came from an infected area. 

Fortunately, the U.S. is taking steps to prevent the spread of Ebola in the U.S. and other countries. Time will tell if their actions are effective but right now we are safe from the severe disease. 

The lesson here–hantavirus is a terrible disease but people need to get educated. Don’t believe everything you see on TikTok. Listen to the reputable sources and do your homework and you’ll realize that other parts of the world are dealing with diseases way worse than hantavirus.