Last American hantavirus cruise ship passenger released from quarantine

Healthcare Last American hantavirus cruise ship passenger released from quarantine Comments: by Max Rego - 06/23/26 6:17 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 06/23/26 6:17 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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As of Sunday, all U.S. citizens on a cruise ship that was the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak are out of quarantine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The 18 Americans onboard the M/V Hondius cruise ship have since completed their 42-day monitoring period, the CDC noted. Those individuals isolated at the National Quarantine Unit (NQU) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The latest update from the medical center, on Thursday, said 12 of the 18 U.S. passengers had left the quarantine unit.

Three individuals on the cruise ship who contracted hantavirus died earlier this year, according to the World Health Organization. Those passengers contracted the Andes strain of the virus, which can cause severe respiratory disease, according to the CDC.

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that are spread mainly by rodents, with the Andes virus the only type known to spread person-to-person.

An additional 19 American passengers on the cruise ship disembarked and returned to the U.S. before health officials identified the outbreak, according to the CDC. State and local health departments monitored those passengers at their homes for a 42-day period that ended on June 6.

Officials detected no cases of hantavirus among those individuals, the CDC added. Overall, no cases of hantavirus occurred in the U.S. as a result of the outbreak on the ship.

Last week, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered American Angela Perryman to remain isolated against her will at the quarantine unit in Nebraska — despite the CDC saying she could quarantine in Florida under minimal supervision.

Perryman, who has had no symptoms of the virus since she flew back to the U.S. on May 11, finished her isolation period on Sunday.

She told The Hill that federal officials previously told passengers they would be able to leave federal quarantine by the end of May and spend the rest of the isolation period under home supervision.

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