Excruciating symptoms of deadly rat virus that tore through cruise ship and killed Gene

Hantavirus, the deadly rat virus that has so far killed three people on a cruise ship and infected seven others has no known cure and an alarming death rate of nearly 40 percent.  

So far three passengers of the MV Hondius, have died as a result of contracting the virus and others, including a British doctor on-board, are infected. 

It remains unclear exactly how the first patient onboard became infected, but the World Health Organization is now investigating whether the transmission was human-to-human. 

Patients typically become infected by inhaling or ingesting the aerosolized fecal matter, urine, or saliva from infected rodents 

Symptoms can at first seem negligible – exhaustion, fatigue and headaches are among the most common. 

But within a few days, a patient may start to feel shortness of breath, chest tightness and fluid in the lungs.

The extremely rare virus was listed as the cause of death for Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, in February 2025. 

A view of the cruise ship MV Hondius stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. Oceanwide Expeditions, the company that operates the cruise ship, said three people are dead and three others are sick from a suspected viral outbreak

Cases are mostly among farmers, hikers and campers, and homeless populations, according to the CDC. 

The disease was first identified in South Korea in 1978 when researchers isolated it from a field mouse. However, it only affects about 40 to 50 Americans each year, mostly in the southwest.

Between 1993 and 2022, 864 cases have been confirmed, the latest available CDC data shows. 

Worldwide, there are about 150,000 to 200,000 cases per year, most of which are in China. 

Hantavirus symptoms typically show up within one to eight weeks of exposure to infected rodents and include fatigue, fever, muscle aches, headache, dizziness, chills and abdominal or digestive issues. 

After four to 10 days of the early symptoms, patients may experience shortness of breath, chest tightness and fluid in the lungs. 

There is no specific treatment. Patients are instead given supportive therapies like rest, hydration, and breathing support. 

Betsy Arakawa was found dead in the Santa Fe home she shared with her husband, Gene Hackman, last year 

The rarity of hantavirus in the US is partly because the country has fewer rodent species that the illness can circulate amongst, compared to Asia and Europe, where multiple rodent species act as hosts.

In the US, deer mice are the most common carriers. 

David Quammen, a science writer whose book predicted the Covid-19 pandemic, previously told Daily Mail that an increase in hantavirus cases could have global implications.

He said: ‘[Hantaviruses] were known from Korea originally, and then they turned up in the Four Corners area of the US back in 1992 and they started killing people. 

‘It wasn’t surprising to find Hantaviruses in the US, as well as in Korea because, again, it’s a global group of viruses.’

Most recently in the US, the virus was detected in five Arizona residents and four people in Nevada last year, suggesting cases could be on the rise. In 2024, there were seven confirmed cases and four deaths. 

Also last year, three people in remote Mammoth Lakes, California, died of hantavirus despite not being ‘engaged in activities typically associated with exposure,’ according to state health officials. 

To reduce risk of exposure, health officials recommend airing out spaces where mice droppings could be, avoid sweeping droppings, use disinfectant and wipe up debris and wear gloves and a mask. 

Deer mice, pictured here, are the most common carriers of hantavirus in the US

Virginia Tech researchers recently found that while deer mice are still the primary reservoir for hantaviruses in North America, the virus is now circulating more widely than previously thought, with antibodies detected in six additional rodent species where they had not been documented before.

Seventy-nine percent of positive blood samples they tested came from deer mice species, but researchers also found that other rodent species had a higher percentage of hantavirus infections than deer mice – between 4.3 and five percent.

The vast majority of human cases are traced back to two or three key deer mouse species, but the study’s findings reveal that the virus is more flexible than scientists once thought, broadening what they know about its basic biology.

Virginia had the highest infection rate among rodents, with nearly eight percent of samples testing positive for hantavirus – four times the national average of around two percent.

Colorado had the second-highest infection rate, followed by Texas, both known risk regions for the virus, with average positive blood samples more than twice as high as the national average.