Americans on hantavirus cruise ship reportedly to be quarantined in US | Hantavirus
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly sent personnel to the Canary Islands to greet the cruise ship hit by the hantavirus outbreak, intending to accompany American passengers to the United States on a chartered flight and quarantine them in Nebraska.
An additional CDC team is already heading to Nebraska, according to anonymous sources who spoke to CNN. The sources said passengers there are expected to be subject to quarantine measures to help prevent any possible spread of the virus. Nebraska is home to both the federally supported National Quarantine Unit and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
“Nebraska Medicine and UNMC remain in close coordination with our national partners regarding the evolving situation regarding the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius,” Nebraska Medicine said in a statement to CNN.
“We cannot discuss specific communications at this time, but our specialized teams, including the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and the National Quarantine Unit, are staffed and ready, if necessary, to safely provide care while protecting our staff and the community,” the statement added.
A spokesperson for the US State Department confirmed to CNN that the agency was organizing the repatriation effort alongside the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Spanish government. The spokesperson said the agency was “in direct communication with the Americans on board and was ready to provide consular assistance as soon as the ship arrived in Tenerife, Spain.”
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Department of Health announced Friday that it was monitoring two of the state’s residents for potential exposure to hantavirus following an international flight.
The CDC alerted state health officials that the two individuals may have come into contact with an infected person during an international flight. The New Jersey residents were not passengers on the ship: the person they may have had contact with had recently left the Hondius.
Neither resident had symptoms at the time of the announcement, but both were being monitored as a precaution, the New Jersey Department of Health said.
New Jersey health officials said the risk to the general public remains very low. The state said there are currently no cases of hantavirus and no confirmed cases have ever been reported there.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, estimates that 17 Americans are on the ship.
The World Health Organization coordinated the international response to the outbreak with several countries. However, experts say U.S. leadership has largely been absent from the broader global response to hantavirus since Donald Trump withdrew from the organization shortly after taking office.
There are now three suspected cases and five confirmed cases of Andes virus, a type of hantavirus that can sometimes spread through close, intimate contact but is usually transmitted by rodents. Three people have died and three have been hospitalized, including in intensive care – although those patients are showing signs of improvement, officials said Thursday.
