2026年5月9日 / 美国东部时间上午10:55 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞·阿达诺姆·盖布雷耶苏斯博士表示，他将亲自监督从一艘暴发罕见致命汉坦病毒的邮轮上撤离100多名乘客的艰巨工作。
“我将亲自到场，”谭德塞在写给加那利群岛民众的信中说道。该邮轮将在西班牙最大岛屿特内里费岛附近海域锚泊。“我打算前往特内里费岛，实地视察此次撤离行动，与参与行动的医护人员、港口工作人员和官员并肩作战，并向这座以优雅、团结和同情之心应对困境的岛屿致以敬意。你们的人性值得被亲眼见证，而不仅仅是在远处被提及。”
据官员透露，该邮轮目前正驶向加那利群岛所属的西班牙特内里费岛，预计将于当地时间周日黎明前，也就是美国东部时间午夜左右抵达该岛。
世卫组织周五表示，船上已有8人被确诊或疑似感染汉坦病毒，其中3人死亡。运营该邮轮的Oceanwide Expeditions公司称，目前船上147人（包括60名船员）均未出现感染症状。
据Oceanwide Expeditions公司介绍，“洪迪厄斯号”邮轮上共有17名美国乘客，他们将通过小艇撤离上岸，随后直接前往跑道上待命的专机。据美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）透露，这架由美国政府提供、CDC负责监督的专机，将把这些美国乘客送往内布拉斯加大学奥马哈分校的国家检疫中心。
“我相信他们都非常渴望回家，但我们必须确保他们以最安全的方式返程，”世卫组织流行病和大流行防范与准备部门代理主任玛丽亚·范·克霍夫在周六的新闻发布会上说道。
西班牙卫生部表示，船上搭载乘客的各个国家都将采取类似的撤离方案，将乘客转移至待命的专机上。
世卫组织表示，建议所有国家将从邮轮上撤离的乘客自最后一次接触病毒之日起隔离42天。
西班牙国民警卫队队员于2026年5月9日在西班牙加那利群岛特内里费岛为“洪迪厄斯号”邮轮乘客的预期接待点搭建帐篷。克里斯·麦格拉思 / 盖蒂图片社
汉坦病毒通常通过与啮齿类动物的密切接触传播，不会在人与人之间传染。不过，对“洪迪厄斯号”上病患的检测确认，他们感染的是安第斯型汉坦病毒，这是唯一一种可通过与感染者密切接触传播的汉坦病毒亚型。
但卫生专家表示，大范围传播的概率极低。
“我知道，当你们听到‘疫情暴发’一词，看到一艘邮轮驶向你们的海岸时，那些我们都未曾真正释怀的记忆会涌上心头，”谭德塞在信中说道。“2020年的伤痛至今仍历历在目，我从未有片刻忽视这一点。但我希望你们能清楚地听到我的话：这不是又一场新冠疫情。”
“目前汉坦病毒构成的公共卫生风险仍然很低，”他继续说道。“我的同事和我已经明确表明过这一点，现在我再向你们重申一次。”
该邮轮于4月1日从阿根廷出发，计划前往南大西洋多个偏远岛屿巡航，包括英国海外领地特里斯坦-达库尼亚和圣赫勒拿岛。
船上的疫情似乎始于一对荷兰夫妇——他们在邮轮出发前数月曾在南美各地旅行，而安第斯型汉坦病毒仅在南美地区存在。据Oceanwide Expeditions公司透露，这对夫妇曾在已知啮齿类动物汉坦病毒检测呈阳性的区域观鸟。
据该公司介绍，丈夫于4月11日在船上去世，而他的妻子则是32名在圣赫勒拿岛下船的乘客之一。据荷兰皇家航空公司透露，她随后飞往南非，却因病情过重无法继续飞行而被带下飞机，数日后死亡。
那架飞机上的数十名乘客以及在圣赫勒拿岛下船的人员目前已在全球各地接受健康观察，其中包括美国民众。据各州卫生部门向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻证实，美国境内得克萨斯州、弗吉尼亚州、佐治亚州、亚利桑那州、新泽西州和加利福尼亚州的相关人员均未出现任何病毒感染症状。
WHO director says he will personally oversee hantavirus cruise evacuation
May 9, 2026 / 10:55 AM EDT / CBS News
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he will personally oversee the painstaking process of evacuating more than 100 people from a cruise ship dealing with an outbreak of the rare and deadly hantavirus.
“I will be there myself,” Tedros said in a letter addressed to the people of the Canary Islands, where the ship will anchor off the coast of its largest island, Tenerife. “I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance.”
The ship is currently sailing toward Tenerife, part of the Spanish and is expected to reach the island just before dawn on Sunday local time, or around midnight U.S. Eastern time, according to officials.
Eight people on the ship had confirmed or suspected cases of the hantavirus and three people have died, the WHO said on Friday. None of the 147 people currently on board, including 60 crew members, are symptomatic, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns the vessel.
There are 17 Americans on the MV Hondius, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, who will be taken off the ship in a small boat, taken to shore and immediately to a plane on the runway waiting for them. The plane, provided by the U.S. government with oversight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will take the Americans to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, according to the CDC.
“I’m sure they’re very anxious to get home, but (we need) to make sure they do that in the most safe way possible,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, said at a press conference on Saturday.
Each country with passengers on board the ship will proceed with a similar evacuation to awaiting planes, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.
The WHO said it was recommending each country keep the passengers removed from the ship in isolation for 42 days from the last point of exposure to the virus.
A member of the Guardia Civil finishes erecting a tent at an expected reception point for passengers from the MV Hondius on May 9, 2026, in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. Chris McGrath / Getty Images
The disease is usually acquired through close contact with rodents, and not transmissable from person to person. However, testing of those who were sickened on the Hondius has confirmed they have the Andes strain of the virus, the only variation that can be transmitted through close contact with a sick individual.
However, health experts say the chances of widespread transmission is very small.
“I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Tedros said in the letter. “The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID.”
“The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,” he continued. “My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.”
The ship left Argentina on April 1 for a cruise stopping at several remote islands in the south Atlantic, including Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena, both British territories.
The outbreak on the ship appears to have started with a Dutch couple who traveled around South America, the only place the Andes strain exists, in the months leading up to the cruise. The couple spent time bird-watching in areas where rodents are known to have tested positive for hantavirus, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.
The husband died on the ship April 11, while his wife was one of 32 people who disembarked the ship in Saint Helena, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. She would fly to South Africa and then die days later when she was removed from a KLM Airlines plane because she was too sick to fly, according to the airline.
Dozens of people on the plane or who disembarked at Saint Helena are already under observation around the world, including in the U.S. None of the people in the U.S. — in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, New Jersey and California — are experiencing any symptoms of the virus, the state’s respective health departments have confirmed to CBS News.