The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending a team to the Canary Islands, Spain, to escort the remaining Americans aboard the cruise ship with the hantavirus outbreak back to the United States, where they will be transferred to a federal quarantine facility in Nebraska.
About 17 Americans remain aboard the MV Hondius. Once they arrive in the U.S., they are expected to be taken to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
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“Nebraska Medicine and UNMC remain in close coordination with national partners regarding the evolving situation with the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship,” Nebraska Medicine said in a statement. “We cannot discuss specific communications at this time, but, our specialized teams, including the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and National Quarantine Unit, are staffed and ready, if needed, to safely provide care while protecting our staff and the community.”
The State Department is coordinating the repatriation flight alongside the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Spanish government, according to CDC officials.
The move comes as global health officials continue responding to the outbreak aboard the expedition cruise ship. World Health Organization officials said Thursday that eight hantavirus cases linked to the vessel have been confirmed, five of them fatal.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the company operating the Hondius, said at least 29 passengers from 12 countries disembarked and returned home after the first onboard death but before authorities identified hantavirus as the cause of the outbreak.
Those passengers traveled to Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
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U.S. health officials are monitoring passengers across multiple states. Authorities in Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia are monitoring seven passengers who previously left the ship, with none showing symptoms.
New Jersey health officials are also monitoring two people who may have been exposed to an infected passenger after departing the Hondius. Neither has developed symptoms, according to the state.
