A hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has become a global public health crisis. The outbreak is driven by small rodents and is influenced by climate-related changes that increase transmission odds. In the Southern Cone, wetter years are linked to explosive rodent population booms called ratadas, which can amplify hantavirus transmission. This year’s boom fits a broader pattern where climate change, environmental disruption, and global travel increase outbreak risk. Several long-tailed pygmy rice rat species in Chile and Argentina can harbor hantavirus, with different hantaviruses tied to geography. The Patagonian long-tailed pygmy rice rat is the main reservoir for the only known hantavirus that can spread from rodents to humans and between humans, enabling outbreaks. Other rodents can also transmit the virus to humans, and ecological conditions such as abundant food after mass flowering can drive spread.
"But other rodents, including the Pampas long-tailed pygmy rice rat ( Oligoryzomys flavescens), can transmit the virus to humans. The virus's spread is driven in part by changing ecological conditions. When food becomes abundant-following events such as the mass flowering of Patagonian bamboo ( Chusqu"
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