Eighteen U.S. citizens who were aboard the MV Hondias cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean amid an outbreak of the deadly Andes hantavirus have landed safely in the United States, and their conditions are being evaluated, U.S. health leaders said during a morning news conference May 11 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
The risk to the general public remains “very, very low,” said Admiral Brian Christine, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who also is a medical doctor and head of the U.S. Public Health Service.
The virus, which has been identified as the Andes type of hantavirus, typically spreads when a person has contact with infected rodents, their urine, saliva or feces. It is carried by rats and mice in South America but is the only type of hantavirus that also is known to spread from person to person.
It can cause severe respiratory illness and is deadly in about 38% of people who develop symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Already, three people who were aboard the MV Hondias have died and at least six others have either confirmed or suspected cases, according to the World Health Organization.
“The Andes variant of the virus does not spread easily and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic,” Christine said. “Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start.”
What is the condition of the U.S. cruise ship passengers?
The U.S. State Department airlifted 17 Americans and one British national with U.S. citizenship from the Dutch cruise ship Sunday from the Canary Islands. They arrived early Monday at the federally funded biocontainment and quarantine units at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
One of the 18 passengers tested positive for the Andes hantavirus in the Canary Islands but remained asympomatic as of Monday morning, said Dr. Angela Hewlett, medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
That person is being retested, monitored and isolated.
“They are doing well,” Hewlett said. “Actually, they currently do not have any symptoms and have a good appetite, although they’re very tired, understandably. … It’s been a really long journey for these folks.”
Fifteen passengers who are asymptomatic were in the quarantine unit in Nebraska, but could chose to travel home in the coming days to continue isolation through the 42-day incubation period.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said, however, that measures will be taken to ensure that those who choose to leave the quarantine unit to travel home don’t compromise the health or safety of others.
“I am satisfied, and Nebraskans can be and the rest of America can be satisfied that there is a strong plan in place to ensure that folks are secure for their initial assessment and we are working diligently to ensure no one leaves … in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time,” he said. ” No one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door, on the streets of Omaha or beyond.”
Two of the American passengers, a couple — one of whom is symptomtic — were taken from Nebraska to a biocontainment unit at Emory University in Atlanta, said John Knox, principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
Dr. Brendan Jackson, acting director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the decision was made to move the symptomatic passenger and that person’s partner to Georgia to ensure that if others also develop symptoms, there’s adequate space and resources for all who are sick to get the care they need.
None of the 15 who remain in Nebraska have hantavirus symptoms and none have fevers, said Dr. Michael Wadman, head of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
Several other U.S. passengers previously disembarked from the MV Hondias cruise ship and returned home — including seven Americans who now are in the states of Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia, USA TODAY reported. Two other people in New Jersey are being monitored after potentially being exposed during air travel to an infected person from the cruise ship, the state health department announced on May 8.
Are any of the cruise ship passengers in Michigan?
None of the ship’s passengers who’ve returned thus far to the United States are in Michigan, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
She told the Detroit Free Press on Monday that, to date, the state health department is not monitoring anyone connected to the MV Hondias.
“CDC is collaborating with international partners to obtain information on cruise ship travelers, and they intend on notifying states of any impacted residents. We have not received any referrals from CDC,” Sutfin told the Detroit Free Press for a previous story.
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hantavirus poses ‘low’ risk to public as U.S. ship passengers return
Reporting by Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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