Data Sources
HantaWatch aggregates outbreak information from public health authorities and verified news organizations. Here is the complete list of sources we pull from, ordered by authority and update frequency.
Our news feed automatically polls each source every 10 minutes and applies a relevance filter requiring mentions of either "MV Hondius" or "Andes hantavirus" before an article is shown. Case counts on the map and statistics panel are manually verified against WHO Disease Outbreak News (DON) and major outlets. Discrepancies between sources are resolved in favor of the more authoritative or more recent figure.
Primary health authorities
These organizations are the canonical sources for outbreak data. When their numbers differ from media reports, we defer to them.
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World Health Organization — Disease Outbreak News (DON)The international gold standard for outbreak reporting. WHO DON updates are infrequent (typically published as events warrant) but authoritative. The MV Hondius outbreak is tracked under WHO reference DON599.
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U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)CDC manages the U.S. response, including the team deployed to Tenerife and the receiving operation at Offutt Air Force Base and University of Nebraska Medical Center. Their Health Alert Network (HAN) advisories are pulled into our news feed.
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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)ECDC publishes Communicable Disease Threats Reports covering European cases and contact-tracing. Their 6 May 2026 threat assessment provided the early framework for European preparedness.
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Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)PAHO covers hantavirus reporting across the Americas, including the endemic Andes virus regions of Argentina, Chile, and neighboring countries where the original infection likely occurred.
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ProMED-mail (International Society for Infectious Diseases)A volunteer-curated early-warning system for emerging infectious disease events. Often surfaces stories days before formal authority bulletins, with the trade-off that information is less verified.
National health ministries
Country-level authorities responsible for cases on their soil or among their citizens.
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RIVM — National Institute for Public Health (Netherlands)The Netherlands has the highest case count among repatriation countries. RIVM is coordinating contact tracing and the post-disembarkation response in Rotterdam.
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Robert Koch Institute (Germany)Germany's federal disease control agency, tracking the German citizen who died aboard the MV Hondius and monitoring contacts.
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UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)UKHSA is contact-tracing 30 disembarked travellers from the ship and monitoring the evacuated British crew member.
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Santé publique FranceCoordinating the response to the French national who tested positive overnight 11 May at Bichat Hospital, Paris, and the eight contacts in isolation.
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Spanish Ministry of HealthSpain operates the primary quarantine site at Gómez Ulla Hospital, Madrid, and is conducting the full epidemiological investigation of the ship in Tenerife.
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National Institute for Communicable Diseases (South Africa)South Africa's response includes the Johannesburg hospital where the Dutch widow died and the 62-person contact-tracing operation.
Genomic and scientific
News and reference
Used to corroborate health-authority reports and to surface developments before formal updates. Our automated news feed pulls headlines from these sources via Google News and original RSS feeds.
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Wikipedia: MV Hondius hantavirus outbreakThe Wikipedia article is collaboratively maintained and currently among the most up-to-date single-page summaries of the outbreak. Editors cite primary sources for each claim.
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ReutersWire-service coverage often breaks updates ahead of national outlets and is generally cautious about unverified claims.
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Associated PressComparable in standing to Reuters; cited by most regional outlets covering the outbreak.
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CNNStrong international health desk; useful for situation-update articles and "by the numbers" overviews.
HantaWatch does not use individual social-media accounts, viral aggregator accounts (e.g., breaking-news Twitter accounts), or anonymous Telegram channels as primary sources. These often inflate numbers, miscontextualize details, or fabricate stories for engagement. Anything from these channels is verified against the authorities listed above before it influences our data.