The American who tested positive for hantavirus said on May 12 that in April he suffered from a number of symptoms, including chills.
“Early in April, maybe the 10th or so, a number of us on board came down with what felt like a flu-like illness,” Dr. Stephen Kornfield, an oncologist based in Oregon, said during an appearance on CNN. “I had three days of night sweats, a lot of chills, some mild respiratory, and a lot of fatigue.”
Kornfield was one of the passengers on the MV Hondius, a cruise ship that departed from Argentina on April 1 and made stops in Antarctica and other remote locations.
Nine hantavirus cases have been confirmed among people who were on board, according to the World Health Organization. Three people who were confirmed or suspected to have hantavirus have died.
Testing on samples from Kornfield returned mixed results. One test was negative; another was positive.
Kornfield is being isolated in a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to prevent him from spreading the virus if he has it.
Speaking to CNN from there, Kornfield said that he feels 100 percent and is no longer showing symptoms.
In April, many of the symptoms, including respiratory issues, cleared quickly, the doctor said. The fatigue lingered for two-and-a-half weeks.
“In retrospect, there is a question: could it have been hantavirus? But it’s just speculation. There’s no way to really know,” Kornfield said.
The doctor and others socialized with the index patient, an adult male who later died, as the patient was not immediately quarantined. Kornfield described it as “frequent, mild contact.”
The Davis Global Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus, which holds the National Quarantine Unit, is seen in Omaha, Neb., on May 11, 2026. (Dylan Widger/Getty Images)
In early May, when the outbreak was confirmed, Kornfield helped take care of ill passengers, which he said means he was certainly at higher risk of contracting hantavirus than other passengers.
Hantavirus usually spreads through contact with rodent droppings or urine. Person-to-person transmission can happen with the Andes variant. Testing has shown that variant among the Hondius passengers.
Kornfield is the only person in the biocontainment unit in Omaha. Fifteen other Americans, none of whom have tested positive, are in a nearby quarantine facility.
An unidentified American and his or her partner are in a biocontainment unit at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. That patient, who has experienced symptoms of hantavirus, tested negative on Monday night, officials said.
‘I Never Got Sick’
Jake Rosmarin, 30, another American on board the Hondius, is among the people quarantined at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“It’s a very nice room,” Rosmarin told The Associated Press. “I already ordered a mattress pad, new pillows. I think, for now, my plan is to take it one day at a time and that’s the best I can do.”
The cruise ship MV Hondius arrives at the port of Granadilla de Abona after being affected by a hantavirus outbreak, in Tenerife, Spain, on May 10, 2026. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
Rosmarin, a content creator and photographer from Boston who has a partnership with the operator of the Hondius, said he expects to be at the center for 42 days.
Once people began to get sick on the ship, passengers were also advised to stay in their cabins as much as possible.
“I left the cabin about 15 minutes each day to refill my water, get fresh air, and grab food for breakfast and lunch,” Rosmarin said, adding that passengers donned masks when they left.
Operator Not Sure About Next Cruise
Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the Hondius, said Wednesday that it will likely know by the end of the week whether scheduled trips will take place in the coming months, including a cruise slated to start later in May.
The ship is now sailing to the Dutch port of Rotterdam with 25 crew, two health workers, and the body of one of the passengers who died on board. No passengers are showing symptoms, and the vessel is expected to arrive on May 17 or 18, Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement.
A micrographic study of liver tissue from a Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) patient in this undated photo obtained by Reuters, on July 6, 2017. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Reuters)
Once there, the Hondius will “undergo a thorough cleaning and disinfection process,” the company said. “The specific protocols are currently being finalized” in cooperation with health authorities, it said.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said the vessel “will be cleaned and disinfected.”
“We are currently working on the protocol on how to do this,” the institute said, adding that no further details could be shared.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
