Amid the current hantavirus outbreak that started on the MV Hondius cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic, health experts are now examining whether Americans may be encountering the virus in everyday places without realizing it.

The rare Andes strain, which was linked to the MV Hondius outbreak, is the only known hantavirus that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact with an infected person.

Most cases of hantavirus in the U.S. occur in the desert Southwest and on the West Coast, according to Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Hermann in the Houston area.

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“In Texas, cases are mostly seen on the west side of the state,” she told Fox News Digital. “The strain of hantavirus native to east Texas and west Louisiana, the Bayou strain, is not as infectious in humans as the western strain, the Sin Nombre strain.”

Hantavirus is mainly spread through contact with infected rodents – primarily deer mice – and their urine, droppings or saliva, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

People can become infected after breathing in contaminated particles that are stirred into the air or touching contaminated surfaces and then touching their nose or mouth. More rarely, rodent bites can spread the virus.

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Exposure is most likely when cleaning enclosed or poorly ventilated areas where rodents may nest unnoticed for weeks or months, health officials say.

Risky locations can include garages, sheds, cabins, attics, barns and crawl spaces. Storage units, stables, kitchen cabinets and spaces behind appliances if rodents are present.

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Rodents can also nest in unused cars, RVs, campers and boats, which can be sources of exposure when reopened.

The National Park Service says that most human cases of hantavirus occur in the spring and are linked to buildings that become heavily infested with rodents over the winter.

“Most people are exposed when cleaning out sheds and garages where rodents have been living,” Yancey confirmed. “You can be exposed by just the dust and droppings left behind by rodents – you don’t even need to even see the rodent to be exposed.”

The risk of inhalation is also higher when opening buildings that have gone unused for longer periods of time, sweeping dusty floors or moving and unpacking boxes, experts cautioned.

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Rodent exposure is not limited to buildings. Health officials say people can also encounter hantavirus risk while handling firewood, working in rodent-prone outdoor areas or disturbing rodent nests and burrows. 

To prevent infection, if cleaning a structure that might have harbored rodents, Yancey recommends wearing a mask and using a diluted bleach solution to wet down any dust or loose debris.

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“This will help kill the exposed virus and reduce the amount of infectious dust,” Yancey said.

The CDC advises against vacuuming or sweeping rodent urine, droppings or nesting materials, as this can aerosolize the virus and increase the risk of inhalation.

Instead, health officials recommend wearing gloves, soaking rodent droppings with disinfectant, wiping them up with paper towels, properly disposing of waste and thoroughly cleaning surfaces, followed by careful handwashing.

Some signs of rodent activity can include droppings, shredded nesting materials, gnaw marks, strong musky odors and scratching sounds in the walls or ceilings, according to public health guidance.

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Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, emphasized that hantavirus is not something that most Americans encounter in daily life, and is more prominent in certain parts of Europe and Asia.

“It is very rare in the U.S. and is seen out west, but rarely,” he told Fox News Digital. “We need to avoid overpersonalizing the risk of a very rare virus.”

Despite the anecdotal nature of the study, it had a seismic impact on medical practice. Most doctors stopped prescribing testosterone, cautioning that the risk of prostate cancer was too high. That prohibition lasted for the remainder of the 20th century. For roughly 60 years, “there was almost no testosterone given anywhere in this world,” says Dr. Abe Morgentaler, a urologist at Harvard Medical School. When he was a medical student in the 1980s, Morgentaler told me, “I was taught that if a healthy man received testosterone today, he would come back in one month with aggressive prostate cancer.”

Morgentaler, however, was curious about the hormone’s potential. As an undergraduate conducting research, he found that when castrated lizards were given testosterone, their mating dances were restored. Once he was practicing as a urologist, men started coming to him complaining of sexual problems. It was a decade before the arrival of Viagra, and doctors had little to offer. “I thought, Maybe guys are like my lizards,” Morgentaler says. He started prescribing testosterone to a small group of patients, warning them that it could increase their risk of prostate cancer. Desperate, most men went ahead anyway.

To his surprise, many of his patients reported that not only were they now having lots of sex but also that other aspects of their lives had improved. “They’d say, ‘My wife likes me again,’” he recalls. “Another says, ‘I wake up in the morning, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, I have optimism for my day. I haven’t felt that way in 15 years.’” Over the next decade, as Morgentaler spoke about his patients’ positive outcomes at conferences, including preliminary data suggesting no increase in the incidence of prostate cancer, more doctors began following his lead.

But soon after Morgentaler began treating his patients, a new obstacle arose. Doping scandals swept the world of sports, where athletes trying to set records and win Olympic medals were caught taking testosterone and other anabolic steroids at doses much higher than what Morgentaler was giving his patients. In 1990, Congress passed a law adding steroids, including testosterone, to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of controlled substances — making the hormone illegal without a prescription and adding new restrictions for doctors.

Then, after a few studies published in the early 2010s suggested that T.R.T. was associated with a potential increase in heart attacks and strokes, the F.D.A. issued a warning label for testosterone products. As part of the warning, the agency required drug makers to fund what would become the largest randomized, placebo-controlled trial to investigate the risks and benefits of T.R.T.

One of the passengers aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship posted video showing his quarantine room at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha as officials monitor a hantavirus outbreak tied to the voyage.

Jake Rosmarin, a passenger currently under quarantine, has been documenting his experience on social media, posting videos from both the ship and the medical facility. Fox News Digital has not independently verified the video.

Health officials have said the passengers are being monitored out of caution after potential exposure to Andes virus, a type of hantavirus, and have emphasized that the risk to the public remains low.

In one recent clip, Rosmarin showed his room, which included a wall-mounted hand sanitizer, a thermometer and other health provisions. The room also featured a stationary bike.

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“I can have stuff sent here for the duration of my stay, so I’m definitely going to be getting some things for me to feel more at home and more comfortable,” Rosmarin said.

He added that he plans to continue sharing updates in the coming days and said he is currently feeling “well.”

Rosmarin also said he has not tested positive for hantavirus.

The footage shows conditions inside the quarantine unit as health officials monitor passengers for potential exposure following the outbreak.

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Health officials have said passengers may be allowed to leave the Nebraska facility before a 42-day monitoring period ends if they meet certain conditions, including remaining symptom-free and being able to safely isolate at home.

Officials will also evaluate whether individuals can maintain contact with local health departments and quickly access testing or medical care if symptoms develop.

Of the 18 individuals transported to the U.S. after the outbreak, 16 are in Nebraska and two are in Atlanta. Most are in quarantine, while one individual was placed in a biocontainment unit after an earlier test result.

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Officials have emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low, noting that the Andes variant of hantavirus does not spread easily and typically requires prolonged, close contact with a symptomatic individual.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.