By any measure, the MV Hondius outbreak is the kind of story that belongs to a different world. A luxury Dutch expedition ship, 150 passengers and crew from 23 nations, a voyage to Antarctica and the remote islands of the South Atlantic — a disease that kills nearly four in ten of those who develop its worst symptoms. Three people are dead. Health ministers and quarantine units have been activated across 22 countries.
What does any of this have to do with an Australian school?
More than principals and deputy principals might initially think.
The Andes hantavirus, confirmed as the strain responsible for the MV Hondius deaths, is endemic to Argentina and Chile. It is carried by a specific rodent species found only in that region. It is not in Australia, cannot be acquired in Australia, and has never killed a person in Australia — a continent that University of the Sunshine Coast Associate Professor Erin Price has noted publicly is the only inhabited landmass never to have recorded a human case of hantavirus.
But Argentina and Chile are popular destinations for senior school geography trips, biology excursions, environmental science programs and rugby tours. The Patagonian wilderness, the Andes, and expedition voyages to Antarctica are staples of the growing market in premium educational travel. They are precisely the kind of outdoor, rural, wildlife-adjacent environments where the Andes virus circulates.
And when a school organises such a trip, it takes its duty of care with it.
What the virus is, and how it behaves
Hantavirus is not a new disease, but the Andes strain is unusual in one important respect: it is the only member of its family documented to transmit between humans. The virus typically passes from infected rodents — their urine, droppings and saliva — to people who disturb contaminated areas, most commonly in rural settings. But the Andes strain has, in rare cases, spread between people through sustained, close contact with a symptomatic individual.
Symptoms begin like influenza: fever, fatigue, heavy muscle aches. They can escalate, sometimes rapidly, to severe respiratory failure. The CDC estimates that approximately 38 per cent of those who develop serious respiratory symptoms will die. There is no specific antiviral treatment. Early supportive hospital care is the only intervention available.
The incubation period runs from four to 42 days — a window wide enough that a student who encountered infected rodents on a two-week South American geography trip could return to their Australian classroom, sit their exams, go home for the holidays, and only then fall seriously ill.
Associate Professor Price, a microbiologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast, has noted that the risk in Australia is extremely low, partly because of the country’s geographic isolation and partly because the specific rodent species that hosts the Andes virus is not present here. For students and staff who travel to the region, however, that protection disappears entirely.
Schools as PCBUs: a duty that travels
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, schools in Australia are persons conducting a business or undertaking. That designation brings real obligations. Schools must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers — which includes teachers and support staff — and of others who may be put at risk by the work of the school, which includes students.
Those obligations do not stop at the school gate. Every state and territory education department in Australia has policies and procedures governing overseas excursions, all of which are grounded in the same principle: the duty of care follows the excursion. Principals who authorise overseas travel are authorising an extension of the school’s WHS responsibilities to wherever that travel leads.
The ACT Education Directorate’s overseas excursions policy is explicit on this point, defining the duty of care on such trips as the obligation “to, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure the health, wellbeing and safety of persons who are under the school’s care and charge while on the excursion.” NSW Department of Education excursion procedures require that hazards be identified and risk assessments completed before departure — not on arrival, not when something goes wrong.
That means schools with South American trips on their calendar — or which are in the planning stages for trips to Argentina, Chile or neighbouring countries — have a specific obligation to incorporate the current hantavirus health advisory context into their risk assessments. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s SmartTraveller service is the appropriate reference; any destination with an active health advisory should trigger a formal review of whether the trip should proceed, be modified, or be deferred.
The excursion market and the Antarctica problem
This is not a theoretical risk. Expedition cruises to Antarctica depart from Ushuaia in southern Argentina, the same port from which the MV Hondius left on April 1. Antarctic and sub-Antarctic voyages have become increasingly common in the premium educational travel market, marketed to senior students in biology, geography and environmental science as transformative learning experiences.
Interest in Antarctica trips was up 34 per cent year-on-year through the first four months of 2026, according to travel insurance platform Squaremouth.
Participants on such voyages typically travel through Argentina before boarding — often visiting Patagonian wildlife sites, nature reserves, or rural areas where the specific rodent populations that carry the Andes virus are present. The MV Hondius itself is believed to have first exposed its passengers not on the ship, but during a months-long birdwatching expedition through Argentina and Chile in the weeks before boarding. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that the first confirmed cases “travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip which included visits to sites where the species of rat known to carry the virus was present.”
A school biology group visiting Patagonian wilderness for a week before boarding an Antarctic cruise is doing something structurally similar.
The obligations in such situations are layered and specific. Excursion organisers must check DFAT SmartTraveller before the trip departs and again in the weeks preceding. Staff must brief students on precautions in environments where rodents may be present: the Australian Centre for Disease Control recommends avoiding contact with rodents and their nesting materials, using damp rather than dry cleaning methods in rural settings, and maintaining personal hygiene. A student who develops flu-like symptoms within six weeks of returning from South America should be directed promptly to medical attention, with their travel history clearly communicated to treating clinicians.
Managing anxiety in the school community
Schools also face a communication challenge that is distinct from that of other employers.
Teenagers process global health events differently from adults, and their parents process them differently still. The MV Hondius outbreak has generated significant media coverage across Australia, and school communities that have upcoming South American or Antarctic excursions should expect questions. In some cases, parents may withdraw consent for a trip already approved and paid for.
In others, students may have genuine and reasonable anxiety about whether it is safe to travel.
The appropriate response is not to minimise, but to communicate clearly and proportionately. The Australian Centre for Disease Control has been consistent: the risk to Australians is low. The Doherty
Institute has similarly noted that the virus does not circulate in Australia and that the specific reservoir rodent is not present here. For students on a school trip to South America who follow appropriate precautions in rural and wildlife environments, the risk is manageable rather than prohibitive.
What principals and travel coordinators should not do is allow the communication vacuum to fill with rumour. A brief, factual note to families — grounded in the Australian CDC’s published guidance, acknowledging the outbreak, explaining why the trip is or is not going ahead, and setting out the precautions in place — is both good practice and a reasonable demonstration of the duty of care schools owe their communities.
What school leaders should do now
The headline risk is low. No Australian school student has contracted hantavirus. The appropriate response is preparation, not panic. For principals and heads of school with South American travel in their programs, four actions are warranted:
Review upcoming excursions against the current DFAT SmartTraveller advisory. Any trip to Argentina, Chile or neighbouring countries should be formally re-assessed in light of the current public health context. This is not a recommendation to cancel; it is a requirement to demonstrate that the assessment has been made and documented.
Brief travel coordinators and accompanying staff. Teachers leading these excursions need to know what hantavirus is, what environments carry risk, and what precautions the Australian CDC recommends — particularly for any activities in rural, wilderness or wildlife settings. This briefing should be documented.
Review your infectious disease response plan for overseas travel. If a student develops flu-like symptoms within six weeks of returning from South America, staff need a clear protocol: refer to a doctor, provide the travel history, and follow the Australian CDC’s guidance on testing and monitoring. This is not a scenario to improvise.
Communicate with families of students in upcoming trips. Factual, calm communication now is far preferable to reactive communication after a parent reads a headline. The ACDC’s published guidance is the appropriate source; schools should not extrapolate beyond it.
The MV Hondius outbreak will pass from the headlines as these things do. The duty of care that attaches to Australian schools sending students to South America will not.
Australia is, as University of the Sunshine Coast’s Associate Professor Price has noted, the only inhabited continent never to have recorded a human hantavirus case. That record reflects geography, biosecurity and institutional readiness — not luck. Maintaining it, for the students in Australian schools who are planning to travel to some of the world’s most remarkable wild places, is a responsibility that belongs squarely to the people who send them there.