Americans onboard hantavirus cruise ship to be repatriated to US | US news
The 17 Americans aboard the M/V Hondius cruise ship who contracted hantavirus disembarked after docking in Tenerife on Sunday and are being sent back to the United States.
Upon arrival in Spain, medical teams from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) waited and interviewed passengers, whose identities were not publicly disclosed and who did not test positive for the virus, about their exposure on the cruise.
Officials said the passengers would arrive in Nebraska on a private charter flight. Nebraska is home to the national quarantine unit and the Nebraska biocontainment unit.
Acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya describes the process after Americans arrived in Omaha. said CNN on Sunday: “We will interview them and assess them for risk.”
“If they are not in close contact with someone who is symptomatic, we will consider them low risk. If they are in close contact, we will consider them medium or high risk. At that point, we will offer them alternatives,” Bhattacharya said.
These will include “an offer to stay in Nebraska if they choose, or to return home if they choose.” [if] “Their situation at home allows them to fly them home safely without exposing other people on the road,” he added, noting that travelers who choose to return home “will be placed under the auspices of their state and local public health agencies with CDC support the entire way.”
Addressing concerns about hantavirus being compared to the Covid-19 outbreak, Bhattacharya said: “This is not Covid… and we do not want to cause public panic about it. We want to treat it with hantavirus protocols that have been successful in containing outbreaks in the past.”
Bhattacharya continued: “We followed those protocols… This health alert is coming out because, again, there’s a separate incident of 17 people coming into the United States very, very soon, and so we want to make sure that the medical community understands that.”
Friday at the CDC. Issue A health alert for clinicians and health departments that includes guidance for providers and outlines symptoms associated with exposure to hantavirus.
“We’re not quarantining anyone,” a CDC official told reporters on a call Saturday. According to ABC“Testing is not recommended for people who have no symptoms.”
In response to the US decision not to impose mandatory quarantine, World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters: “Our advice is clear. As of May 10, [we recommend] “42 days of active monitoring, 42 days of quarantine, but this can be in a facility or at home.”
“We give them advice, we do not impose laws,” he added.
