Two U.S. passengers aboard the cruise ship that was hit by a rare hantavirus outbreak are being monitored in Georgia, while 16 others are at a prestigious medical facility in Nebraska, officials said Monday.
Fifteen passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are asymptomatic and quarantining at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. A 16th passenger, and the only one in the United States who has tested positive for the virus, is at the center’s special biocontainment unit but does not yet have any symptoms, officials said at a press conference. Two more, a couple, are at Emory University in Atlanta. One of them is experiencing symptoms.
Recommended Stories
Notably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s headquarters are located in Atlanta.
“Let me be clear, let me be crystal clear, the risk of hantavirus remains very, very low,” Adm. Brian Christine, the Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health, said. “The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic. Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start.”
Seventeen Americans were aboard the cruise ship at the center of the deadly hantavirus outbreak. The 18th passenger is a British dual national who decided to come back to the U.S. They disembarked from the Hondius after the ship anchored near Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, and arrived at the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska on Monday.
The latest outbreak, which typically originates with rodents, has been linked to three deaths thus far, though none of them were U.S. citizens. A Dutch couple and a German woman have died. Officials have emphasized that it does not spread as easily as other viruses that have shaken the country, such as COVID-19.
Nebraska’s governor this week praised the Trump administration’s health team, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for its response to the outbreak.
“I am satisfied, and Nebraskans can be, that the rest of America can be satisfied that there is a strong plan in place and to ensure the folks are secure for their initial assessment,” Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) said after the passengers arrived at UNMC. “We are working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time, no one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha or beyond.”
The passengers are entering a 42-day monitoring period, which officials described as a “conservative” time frame, as most individuals infected with the virus develop symptoms far before the six-week period ends.
BHATTACHARYA URGES CALM OVER HANTAVIRUS AS AMERICANS AFFECTED ARE MOVED TO 42-DAY ISOLATION
Dr. Michael Wadman, the director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit, said the passengers span multiple generations.
“In general, the age range that we have in the quarantine unit ranges from late 20s to late 70s/early 80s,” he said.
