AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.But it has been hard to attract interest in medical interventions for viruses that have not been considered a top public health priority, scientists say.Listen · 7:49 min An ambulance boat approaching the cruise ship MV Hondius, which has sustained a deadly hantavirus outbreak, off Cape Verde on Tuesday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMay 9, 2026The deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius has put the spotlight on a rare pathogen that typically attracts relatively little attention, even from scientists.There are no targeted treatments for hantaviruses, which are typically carried by rodents, and no widely available vaccines. So when passengers began falling ill in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, doctors and public health experts were limited in what they could offer.“It’s kind of a wake-up call,” said Dr. Vaithi Arumugaswami, an infectious disease researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Our tool kit is almost empty.”That’s not for lack of trying. A handful of scientific teams around the world have been working — for decades, in some cases — to develop hantavirus treatments and vaccines. But it has not been easy to find funding or nurture commercial interest in medical interventions for a type of pathogen that does not infect humans often and does not spread easily between people.“It’s not an airborne, highly contagious viral threat, so it hasn’t been as high a priority for groups trying to prevent pandemics,” said Jay Hooper, a virologist at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.But there are promising vaccines and treatments in development. And some of them, experts said, could be moved through the pipeline rapidly if hantavirus interventions became a priority.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT