Americans on hantavirus cruise ship reportedly to be quarantined in US | Hantavirus
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly sending personnel to the Canary Islands to meet the cruise ship affected by the hantavirus outbreak, with plans to escort American passengers back to the US on a chartered flight and place them in quarantine in Nebraska.
An additional CDC team is already heading to Nebraska, according to anonymous sources who spoke. CNN. Passengers are expected to be subject to quarantine measures there to prevent possible spread of the virus, sources said. Nebraska is home to both the federally supported National Quarantine Unit and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
“Nebraska Medicine and UNMC continue to coordinate closely with national partners on the evolving situation regarding the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius,” Nebraska Medicine said in a statement to CNN.
“We cannot discuss specific communications at this time, but our expert teams, including the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and the National Quarantine Unit, are staffed and ready to safely provide care if necessary, while protecting our staff and the community,” the statement added.
A spokesperson for the US state department confirmed to CNN that the agency is organizing the repatriation effort with the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Spanish government. The spokesman said the agency was “in direct communication with the Americans on board and stands ready to provide consular assistance as soon as the ship arrives in Tenerife, Spain.”
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Department of Health announced On Friday, the state announced that two of its residents were being monitored for possible exposure to hantavirus following an international flight.
The CDC alerted state health officials that two people 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 Hondius.
The New Jersey health department said neither resident had any symptoms at the time of the announcement, but both were being monitored as a precaution.
New Jersey health authorities said the risk to the public remains very low. The province said there are currently no cases of hantavirus and no confirmed cases have been reported there.
The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, estimates there were 17 Americans on board.
The World Health Organization is coordinating the international response to the outbreak with multiple countries. But experts say U.S. leadership has been largely absent from the broader global hantavirus response since Donald Trump withdrew from the organization shortly after taking office.
There are currently three suspected and five confirmed cases of Andes virus, a type of hantavirus that can sometimes spread through close contact but is usually spread by rodents. Three people died and three others were hospitalized, including in intensive care, but those patients showed signs of recovery, officials said Thursday.
