How many hantavirus cases are there in 2026?

As of 7 May 2026, the MV Hondius cluster has 8 reported cases (5 confirmed by laboratory testing, 3 suspected pending confirmation) and 3 deaths. These cases span 5 countries where patients are hospitalized: Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, and Saint Helena. Contact tracing is active across at least 6 additional countries: USA, Singapore, Canada, France, UK, and Spain. Beyond the Hondius cluster, sporadic background hantavirus cases occur annually in endemic regions: typically 20-40 cases/year in the USA (Sin Nombre), 100-200 in Argentina (Andes), several thousand HFRS cases across Eurasia (Puumala, Hantaan, Seoul). The current outbreak is unusual not for raw case count but for its multi-country footprint via cruise ship travel.