U.S. departure from WHO could hinder hantavirus response
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
May 7, 2026, 6:20 PM EDTBy Aria Bendix
The deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch-operated cruise ship with passengers of 23 nationalities is precisely the type of public health crisis the World Health Organization is designed to tackle. But the U.S. formally left the WHO in January, after 78 years of membership.
As a result, health experts say, the U.S. might not get immediate access to surveillance data about the virus and contact tracing information about cases linked to the ship, which could help prevent additional infections.
"The access that we got as being members and as being important donors to WHO is gone," said Amira Albert Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University.
Ordinarily, Roess said, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts would have been part of the teams sequencing the virus. Now, the U.S. might have to learn about results secondhand.
When asked about those concerns, the Department of Health and Human Services referred NBC News to a statement on the CDC website, which says that the State Department has been in direct contact with cruise ship passengers and that the government is "working closely with our international partners to provide technical assistance and guidance to mitigate risk."
"The White House continues to work with the CDC and State Department to monitor and respond to a recent outbreak of the Andes virus," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. "While possible risks to the American public remain low, the CDC has convened leading experts on Andes virus to assist in this effort to ensure Americans are protected. The entire Administration remains vigilant."
WHO officials said in a Thursday news conference that they were exchanging information with the U.S. thanks to international health regulations that require countries to report public health threats of international concern.
"We have very positive, regular interaction almost every single day," said Anais Legand, WHO's technical lead for viral hemorrhagic fevers.
But Stephanie Psaki, who was the coordinator for global health security during the Biden administration, said that when the U.S. was a WHO member, it often received advanced updates about disease outbreaks.
"By the time the information is shared publicly, certainly — but sometimes even through the [International Health Regulations] networks — the experts at WHO and CDC often already knew it for days or weeks," Psaki, now a senior fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health, said.
President Donald Trump announced his intent for the U.S. to leave the WHO soon after taking office last year, citing what he described as "the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic" as a main reason. Until then, the U.S. had been one of the organization's top donors.
With its departure, the U.S. terminated all funding to the WHO, pulled its staffers from WHO offices and severed participation in WHO committees and working groups.
Some experts now worry that the WHO can't draw fully from the CDC's resources and expertise to respond to the outbreak.
"Even when there are lots of actors involved who have the capacity and willingness to contain the threat and respond to the threat, it happens more quickly — and often more effectively — when the U.S. government is involved," Psaki said.
Nearly 150 people remain on the cruise ship, confined to their cabins and monitoring for symptoms of the deadly virus. The ship is headed for the Canary Islands and evacuations could begin on Monday.
Three passengers have died. The first two were a Dutch husband and wife who had visited sites on a birdwatching trip in Argentina where a species of rat known to carry the Andes strain was present. Then a German woman died on May 2, just days after developing symptoms.
In total, five current or former passengers have been confirmed to have been infected. Three more cases are suspected. The virus' incubation period can last up to six weeks, so more cases may still emerge.
More than two dozen passengers from 12 countries disembarked from the cruise ship on April 24 in St. Helena, a British territory. That included six Americans, according to the cruise ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions. Some of those passengers are now in Arizona, California, Georgia and Virginia, according to authorities in those states.
Seventeen American passengers remained on the cruise ship as of Monday.
"This is a critical example of why the U.S. needs global public health partnerships. The withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) puts people in the U.S. at higher risk and raises an important question: Are countries still sharing information with the U.S. quickly enough to keep us safe?" the National Public Health Coalition, a group of current and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees, said in a statement.
Hantavirus, which causes fever, fatigue, nausea and trouble breathing, is typically contracted through contact with rodents or their urine, feces or saliva. Infections are rare — around 230 cases were recorded in the Americas last year — but the fatality rate for the virus in that region is up to 50%, according to the WHO.
The strain involved in the cruise ship outbreak, known as the Andes strain, is primarily carried by the pygmy rice rat, found in South America. It's the only version of the virus known to be transmissible between humans, though that's not the primary route of transmission. When it does spread between people, it's usually among those who have had close, prolonged contact. The virus has no known cure, so doctors try to manage symptoms.
Psaki said it's unusual that the CDC hasn't held a public briefing about the outbreak yet.
"It doesn't inspire confidence when it's already public that people have traveled back to the U.S. before there's any information shared by CDC. That's not the order that it should go," she said.
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Pretty sure that Trump wants to send the world to hell because he lost an election to Biden. That's what insane folk do.
Not really considering who's the Sec of Health or whatever the fuck his title is
Wormboy?
lol
This guy?
Reportedly Vance left his wife behind as well.
Big tough guys are supposed to take care of their wimmen aren't they?
Or their sofas?
those maga heroes knew that they just had to run faster than their wives in an active shooter situation ...
The guy Trump used to make fun of?
The COVID19 pandemic really did reveal that the World Health Organization was broken with politics often having more influence than science. The WHO really was treating the United States like a 'free lunch'. So, I'm not that upset the US withdrew from the WHO. The current fearmongering over the hantavirus outbreak suggests that WHO is still allowing politics to have more influence than science. The politicization of this hantavirus outbreak as a political litmus test suggests the US should still keep WHO at arm's length.
Because COVID disappeared like magic before Easter?
No. WHO being influenced by politics as much as science was not Trump's doing.
People trying to hide problems, shortcomings, and outright failures by pointing fingers at Trump are no better than Trump. Trying rebut everything with Trump buffoonery is not a viable substitute for problem solving and progress.
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"The WHO should have declared a global emergency earlier than it did, its report said, adding that without urgent change the world was vulnerable to another major disease outbreak."
Covid: Serious failures in WHO and global response, report finds
gee, I sure hope this new version of the black plague doesn't decimate thumpers, anti-vaxers, and gullible old magas like covid did ...
Got into the bodyguard business decades ago hoping for a starlet or rock goddess. My agency initially assigned me to a wrinkled old evil asshole that I felt like shooting myself half of the time.
Have to wonder if Trumps SS would actually take a bullet for him. From what I saw the other night at the correspondents dinner, they seemed more than a little slow off the mark.
Absolutely.
Just like last time the first thing the WHO did was to rate the new virus as low risk
That is why we left the organization