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It appears that hantavirus — which is typically spread by exposure to rodent urine, feces or saliva and can be deadly — may have spread between passengers on a cruise ship that's anchored off the coast of Cape Verde.

"We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the director of epidemic and pandemic management at World Health Organization, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.

"It's very, very surprising, and obviously a very rare occurrence," says Kari Debbink, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. However, she adds, the evidence presented by the WHO is "compelling," although the risk to the general public remains very low.