NIH Canceled $82 Million CREID Network in 2025 as 7-Case Hantavirus Outbreak Unfolds
Updated
Updated · R&D World · May 7
NIH Canceled $82 Million CREID Network in 2025 as 7-Case Hantavirus Outbreak Unfolds
10 articles · Updated · R&D World · May 7
A June 5, 2025 stop-work order shut all 10 NIH-backed CREID centers, including a WAC-EID pilot project studying how hantavirus jumps from rodents to humans.
NIH said the research was unsafe for Americans and not a good use of taxpayer money, while virologists involved in CREID said there was no evidence the work posed such risks.
Seven known cases have been linked to the MV Hondius cruise-ship outbreak, caused by Andes virus—an unusual hantavirus that can spread person to person, unlike most strains.
Scientists said the canceled project likely would not have prevented this outbreak, but cutting rare-disease surveillance and transmission research could leave the U.S. and world less prepared for future pandemics.
WHO said on May 4 that the global risk remains low, even as investigators still do not know how transmission occurred in the current cluster.
This hantavirus spreads person-to-person on a cruise. What does this outbreak reveal about the hidden dangers of modern global travel?
With key research defunded, what are we missing in the fight against this rare human-to-human hantavirus outbreak at sea?
With no cure for the fatal hantavirus, can a new heat-stable vaccine technology become the key to preventing a future pandemic?