Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship Spurs New Research Into Treatments","description":"The Andes virus outbreak on a global cruise ship has highlighted urgent gaps in vaccines and therapies for hantaviruses, prompting renewed international research.","summary":"A deadly hantavirus case cluster aboard a cruise ship has reignited a global scientific effort to develop drugs and vaccines, with preliminary work on tocilizumab and monoclonal antibodies showing promise—yet the rarity of outbreaks continues to hinder progress.","image":"https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/05d2906/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6240x4160+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https://assets.apnews.com/1e/24/b6e8792884e1e642fbe174465f46/adce3b6a211d479abb0f10aadd970f95","text":"

In early July, a handful of passengers on a global cruise ship tested positive for a rare rodent‑borne virus, the Andes hantavirus, which can be transmitted between people in some instances. The outbreak dazzled authorities and the public alike, underlining how little is known about preventing and treating hantavirus infections.

Although hantaviruses have been contenders in virology for decades, they remain under‑funded due to their rarity and low transmissibility. Researchers from Chile, Argentina and the United States have been pursuing vaccines and antibody therapies for years, but expanding clinical studies has always been hampered by limited cases and lack of sustained investment.

The newest development is the use of tocilizumab, a drug traditionally used for rheumatoid arthritis, given to patients experiencing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome—a severe lung‑filling complication that can result from the Andes virus and other hantaviruses found across the world. In a small compassionate‑use study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, four of five patients who received the drug survived, whereas five eligible patients who did not receive it died. The drug’s success comes from its ability to dampen the inflammatory molecule IL‑6, which fuels the deadly lung damage.

In parallel, scientists are testing monoclonal antibodies derived from hantavirus survivors. A Chile–based team led by Dr. María Inés Barría, in collaboration with U.S. NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, used cloned antibodies in animals in 2018 and has now launched a prospective human study. “We can now move into the next phase, but funding is still the primary hurdle,” Barría told researchers.

Progress is also underway for vaccine candidates. The U.S. Army’s M. I. I. D. has a candidate for the Andes virus that has already induced neutralizing antibodies in early human trials. Other groups, such as the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, are advancing similar efforts.

Vaccine licensing remains elusive. While some “old‑world” hantavirus vaccines have been used in outbreak responses, the World Health Organization reports no currently licensed vaccines for hantaviruses worldwide. Yet new candidates are emerging, driven largely by lessons from the recent cruise‑ship outbreak and predictions that climate change will boost human–rodent contact.

Expert voices caution that long‑term study and market sustainability are major obstacles. Dr. Paul Bollyky of Stanford emphasized that the unpredictability of hantavirus outbreaks limits the feasibility of large‑scale clinical trials—“impractical for a rare disease.” The sparsity of cases means limited commercial incentive for vaccine makers, further slowing progress.

Still, the dire outcomes of the cruise‑ship outbreak—three passenger fatalities among a handful of cases and the 15 deaths in Chile—have raised a sense of urgency. “It is a tragedy that could happen to any disease,” Dr. Fernando Tortosa of the National University of Río Negro noted, urging stronger partnerships between health workers, communities, and funding agencies to bid the promise of treatments and vaccines into reality.

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