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WHO director arrives in Canary Islands to oversee hantavirus cruise evacuation

▶ Watch Video: Hantavirus cruise passengers to be evacuated to home countries, including Americans

World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife Saturday to personally oversee the painstaking process of evacuating more than 100 people from a cruise ship dealing with an outbreak of the rare and deadly hantavirus.

Addressing the people of the Canary Islands, where the ship will anchor off the coast of its largest island, the WHO chief said the public’s concern is legitimate after what the world experienced in 2020 during the global coronavirus pandemic.

“This disease is not COVID,” Tedros said, reiterating a letter he wrote earlier Saturday. “The risk to the local population is low.”

Tedros said that the nature of the hantavirus is not the same as the coronavirus, but “that trauma is still in our minds.”

“That’s why also I came here,” he said. “To be on the side of the people because saying things from far could be easy. But I had to change my plans to come here because this is very, very important to the whole world and to the people of Tenerife as well.”

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday, officials said.

Eight people on the ship had confirmed or suspected cases of the hantavirus and three people have died, the WHO said on Friday. None of the 147 people currently on board, including 60 crew members, are symptomatic, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns the vessel.

Tedros estimated Saturday that there will be six evacuation flights headed for the EU and four for non-EU countries.

There are 17 Americans on the MV Hondius, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, who will be taken off the ship in a small boat, taken to shore and immediately to a plane on the runway waiting for them. The plane, provided by the U.S. government with oversight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will take the Americans to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, according to the CDC. 

“I’m sure they’re very anxious to get home, but (we need) to make sure they do that in the most safe way possible,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, said at a press conference on Saturday.

Each country with passengers on board the ship will proceed with a similar evacuation to awaiting planes, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.

The WHO said it was recommending each country keep the passengers removed from the ship in isolation for 42 days from the last point of exposure to the virus.

Cruise Ship MV Hondius To Dock In Tenerife
A member of the Guardia Civil finishes erecting a tent at an expected reception point for passengers from the MV Hondius on May 9, 2026, in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.

Chris McGrath / Getty Images

The disease is usually acquired through close contact with rodents, and is not transmissible from person to person. However, testing of those who were sickened on the Hondius has confirmed they have the Andes strain of the virus, the only variation that can be transmitted through close contact with a sick individual. 

However, health experts say the chances of widespread transmission are very small.

“I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Tedros said in the letter addressed to the people of the Canary Islands earlier Saturday. “The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID.” 

“The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,” he continued. “My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.”

The ship left Argentina on April 1 for a cruise stopping at several remote islands in the south Atlantic, including Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena, both British territories.

The outbreak on the ship appears to have started with a Dutch couple who traveled around South America, the only place the Andes strain exists, in the months leading up to the cruise. The couple spent time bird-watching in areas where rodents are known to have tested positive for hantavirus, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.

The husband died on the ship April 11, while his wife was one of 32 people who disembarked the ship in Saint Helena, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. She would fly to South Africa and then die days later when she was removed from a KLM Airlines plane because she was too sick to fly, according to the airline.

Dozens of people on the plane or who disembarked at Saint Helena are already under observation around the world, including in the U.S. None of the people in the U.S. — in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, New Jersey and California — are experiencing any symptoms of the virus, the state’s respective health departments have confirmed to CBS News.

‘Aura farming’ began as a meme. Latin American youth have turned it into a competitive sport

By CNN
(CNN) — A group of rowdy spectators gathers in a public square, encircling two young men facing each other with intense looks in their eyes. The crowd points their phones at the pair, who are alternating between short dances, rhythmic movements, and striking poses.This is not a scene from “Zoolander;” the crowd is attending a championship of “aura” in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, according to videos posted to TikTok and Instagram.Tuesday’s event at the University of Costa Rica is one of many so-called “aura battles” that have taken off in Latin American countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The contests appear to be designed for virality, with young competitors often demonstrating exaggerated versions of popular TikTok dance moves for the audience.Outrageousness seems to be the point of these battles, which have no apparent criteria, judges, or rules. Instead, contestants compete for crowd reaction and are rewarded with attention and, in some cases, small cash prizes.The phenomenon may have a special appeal to youth in the region due to a culture of assembling in public areas, Frederick Luis Aldama, a humanities professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told CNN.“These are definitely collective and public and person to person, and because in Latin America, we have a long history of the plaza, of the courtyard, of the gathering in the parks,” Aldama explained.They also provide a free, nonviolent space for youth to seek human connection among their peers and may reflect a desire to disconnect from technology and be present, he said.Aldama happened to witness one such “aura battle” in Mexico City’s Parque México.“What I noticed was completely against what I had been trained to think would be the winner, which is someone who was doing a more high-intensity kind of move,” he said. “I realized that the one that won was the one who just brought the kind of aura, the glow of absolute total composure.”Taking inspiration from ‘aura farming’The battle’s precursor comes from “aura farming,” a term that has taken renewed meaning online in recent years.“Aura farming” is described by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “the act of doing something to look cool, impressive, stylish, etc., especially — and importantly — without trying too hard.”The phrase first surfaced in early 2024 and has grown in popularity since, according to Know Your Meme. It reached a wider audience the following year through viral videos featuring an 11-year-old Indonesian boy named Rayyan Arkan Dikha, dancing at the front of a boat.With a steely disposition, Dikha is seen in the videos standing at the very front of a thin boat, executing a repetitive series of dance moves as a line of rowers propel them through a river. As the videos quickly gained traction, commenters and other social media users remarked on the high levels of “aura” possessed by Dikha.Since then, Dikha has accrued thousands of followers on Instagram and was named a tourism ambassador for his home province of Riau.As his performance amassed millions of views, the term “aura farming” began frequently appearing across the internet: from video edits glorifying anime characters to X posts celebrating athletes or celebrities.‘They become a character’“Aura battles” have begun appearing in public spaces across Latin American countries, often organized by local content creators and engineered for maximum virality. Videos of the competitions have received hundreds of thousands of views on social media.Victor Gabriel Tourinho Camargo, a Brazilian content creator known as Uvitinho, organized several tournaments in the city of Suzano.More than 200 people participated, Uvitinho said. Videos showed the participants packed into a park, including one dressed as a sheikh with a briefcase full of Brazilian reais.“The aura farming championship was something created with the focus of taking something popular on the internet and bringing it to reality, mixing it with childhood games and showing people and children that there is still hope for a more real life with genuine moments,” Uvitinho told CNN.“There was a mix of shy, antisocial and extroverted people… and in that moment, they all put aside all that, played together, and made friends,” he added.Mexican YouTuber Alex Crashers described encountering an aura battle in Mexico in a video shared this week. “Even though it seems silly, I got hyped every time someone pulled off a new move,” he said.Argentinian content creator Cielo, known as Cieloween, helped organize an “aura battle” in Chinatown in Buenos Aires scheduled for this Saturday after watching viral videos of a previous battle in the coastal city of Mar del Plata just days before. “The concept of ‘aura farming’ has been around for a while, but now the competition aspect has started to take off,” she told CNN.In many ways, the events resemble past versions of youth “battles” in which competitors were equipped with Pokémon cards, Beyblades or rap verses.Cieloween explained that the moves shown by participants vary widely. “It depends on the person and what they want to show. Some are more serious, while others are more humorous and entertaining. It depends on the person and the character they want to portray, because ultimately, they become a character,” she said.Cieloween said she doesn’t know how many people will attend Saturday’s event, but that the goal is to build community. “That’s what it’s all about: meeting people, being together, connecting with people who share your interests. Making friends, laughing. That’s what we’re going for,” she said.But the showcase has also attracted skeptics.The battle at the University of Costa Rica gained significant attention, with some viewers leaving comments on the videos over the spectacle.In the Brazilian city of Cuiabá, the mayor, Abílio Brunini, prohibited one such championship from taking place in the city’s main public space. “I believe that, in the future, the people who participate in this game will feel very ashamed,” he said.Still, social media videos showed individuals defiantly competing in front of the City Hall building in July.Despite some derision, the competitions have continued as participants embrace the absurdity and young people seek connection. “All this stuff that’s thrown at them, having gone through lockdown, having been like pulled away from these so-called third spaces, these plazas, these places of engagement. No wonder it’s coming back like a storm,” Aldama, the University of Texas professor, told CNN.He compares the criticism to the backlash faced by the Australian breakdancer Raygun, who was mocked for her viral Olympic performance.“There’s always going to be that negativity,” Aldama said. “But what I saw and experienced was really working-class youth, especially in Latin America, gathering to celebrate something joyful.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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