US has ZERO cruise inspectors after CDC department was laid off… as hantavirus on ship kills three and concerns spread to America

All of the CDC’s cruise inspectors were laid off last year, resurfaced reporting has found, as a deadly hantavirus outbreak unfolds. 

The Dutch luxury cruise liner MV Hondius is at the center of an outbreak of hantavirus, which typically spreads via breathing in dust from the droppings of infected rodents.

The illness, which has a 40 percent mortality rate, has left three ship passengers dead and at least another eight infected. 

No cases have been confirmed in the US, though nine Americans have potential exposure and are under medical watch in New Jersey, Georgia, California, Texas, Virginia and Arizona, state health authorities have confirmed. 

One year before the outbreak, in April 2025, CBS News reported that all full-time employees working for the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) had been fired. 

The department handles ships that have an itinerary with a US port and, according to the CDC’s website, ‘helps the cruise industry prevent and control public health issues,’ including inspecting cruise ships and reporting violations, as well as providing information about outbreaks.

The layoffs, which included the epidemiologist who led the agency’s outbreak response on cruise ships, left a group of just 12 remaining US Public Health Service officers. One epidemiologist, who was still training, remained with the team, according to April 2025 reporting. 

It reportedly takes up to six months to train a new cruise ship inspector. 

A CDC spokesperson told People that despite the layoffs, VSP remains ‘fully staffed.’

‘CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) remains fully staffed, including epidemiologists, and continues to carry out all core program activities for cruise ships under U.S. jurisdiction,’ the statement read. 

Health authorities do not believe the MV Hondius’s hantavirus outbreak has arisen from a lack of cleanliness on the ship, as passengers are thought to have already been infected before getting on the ship, but news of the layoffs has resurfaced amid the outbreak.

However, the April 2025 layoffs came amid a record number of norovirus outbreaks last year. 

Norovirus, a rib-cracking vomiting illness that infects 21 million Americans each year, is one of the most common causes of cruise ship outbreaks, as it spreads easily in close quarters. 

According to the CDC, there were 18 norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships in VSP’s jurisdiction in 2025. At least four outbreaks with various causes have been reported so far this year. 

At the time of the layoffs, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claimed the cruise ship work would still be able to continue with the remaining US Public Health Service officers. 

‘Critical programs in the CDC will continue under Secretary Kennedy’s vision to streamline HHS to better serve Americans. CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) continues to monitor and assist with gastrointestinal outbreaks and track and report these illnesses,’ the official said in a statement at the time.  

It does not appear that the MV Hondius was scheduled to arrive in any US port, but there are more than a dozen American passengers are board, some of which have already returned back to the US and others who are still on board.

Officials are seeking to bring them home this weekend.  

The incubation period for the hantavirus ranges from four to 42 days. There is no word yet on if the Americans returning will have to quarantine, but the UK is advising its citizens with potential exposure to quarantine for 45 days. 

For Americans, the CDC said, the current risk is low and classified the situation as a Class III, its lowest threat level. 

Hantavirus is typically spread via breathing in dust from the droppings of infected rodents, which may be disturbed during sweeping or cleaning. But the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about the possibility of rare human-to-human transmission in this current outbreak. 

The hantavirus strain behind the outbreak is the Andes strain – which has been linked to previous outbreaks where the virus has spread between people. 

‘Out of all the hantaviruses we know about, only one (the Andes virus) has ever been proven to spread from person to person,’ Dr Zaid Fadul, a physician and CEO of Bespoke Concierge MD, told the Daily Mail.

‘Every other hantavirus strain stays in its rodent host and only jumps to humans when we breathe in aerosolized particles from their droppings, urine, or saliva. Andes virus is the exception.’

Argentine officials reported that a Dutch couple who boarded the MV Hondius had visited a landfill site to take pictures of birds in the city of Ushuaia, which may have exposed them to rodents carrying hantavirus.

That couple eventually died of the virus – the husband on board the ship and the wife after she had disembarked and began her travels home. The third death was a German citizen. 

The WHO is attempting to locate at least 69 people who may have come into contact with the 69-year-old deceased Dutch woman, who boarded two flights before she died of the virus on April 26 in South Africa. 

US state health officials in New Jersey, Georgia, California, Arizona and Virginia have all confirmed that residents from each state were onboard the vessel and have since returned home, where they are being monitored for signs of hantavirus. 

When spreading person-to-person, hantavirus is transmitted through close contact, which is considered having prolonged, repeated exposure to an infected person’s respiratory droplets or saliva. 

‘Hantavirus exists in rodent saliva, so there could be transmission via saliva and droplets. For people, that would include coughing, kissing, or prolonged close person to person contact,’ Dr Carrie Horn, chief medical officer at National Jewish Health in Colorado, told the Daily Mail.

On cruise ships, that could be tight accommodations, crowded pool and deck areas, as well as busy restaurants and bars. Close contact could also include planes and being in close quarters with someone while traveling on an aircraft.

Buffets are common on cruise ships with shared utensils and potentially contaminated surfaces that many passengers touch at once, raising the risk of illness.

Hantavirus has a 40 percent mortality rate, primarily due to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), a severe respiratory condition where blood vessels in the lungs leak, filling air sacs with fluid. This results in respiratory failure. 

There is also no specific treatment for hantavirus, so early medical attention is key for preventing severe illness.