On 13 May 2026 the World Health Organization said in Disease Outbreak News that a hantavirus cluster is linked to passengers from a Dutch cruise ship who disembarked in multiple countries. The cluster includes several severe pulmonary hantavirus cases, with at least three deaths and multiple hospitalizations among passengers who returned to Canada and the United States. The Illinois Department of Public Health is separately investigating a hantavirus case traced to cleaning a home with rodent droppings, highlighting that hantavirus transmits from rodent exposure and that international travel complicates detection and public-health follow-up.
