One of the 17 Americans evacuated from the infamous hantavirus cruise has tested positive for the disease, while another has ‘mild symptoms,’ the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Sunday night.
While at least six Americans were being monitored for the disease related to the cruise, this is the first confirmed case of the hantavirus from those being evacuated this weekend from the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius.
All the US citizens – as well as one British national who lives in the US – are being flown to the United States and the two passengers with symptoms are traveling in the plane’s biocontainment units, HHS added.
The second symptomatic passenger has not yet been confirmed as having the virus. The aircraft was due to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday.
‘One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus,’ they said.
‘As of now, the airlift will transport passengers to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska before taking the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at its final destination.’
Each of the 17 Americans will be clinically assessed and cared for based on their condition, HHS added.
‘One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,’ said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for The Nebraska Medical Center.
Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius
One of the 17 Americans evacuated from the infamous hantavirus cruise has tested positive for the disease, while another has ‘mild symptoms,’ the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Sunday night
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that are usually spread by rodents but in rare cases can be transmitted person to person.
Health authorities have said the risk of the virus spreading is low.
Eight people no longer on the MV Hondius have fallen ill, according to a World Health Organization update from Friday, with six of them confirmed to have contracted the virus.
A Dutch couple and a German national have died.
The Andes strain of hantavirus, identified in the ship’s outbreak, can cause severe lung illness that can be fatal in up to 50 percent of cases, according to the WHO.
Spain and France have evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which is anchored near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, officials said.
Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK and Ireland are also flying home nationals who were on the ship.
So far, there have been eight cases of hantavirus linked to the outbreak that began on the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius headed for the Canary Islands in early April.
A potential Dutch patient leaves the aircraft after three medical evacuees from the cruise ship MV Hondius
An American citizen takes photos on his phone as he arrives onshore after being evacuated from the MV Hondius
Five infections have been confirmed, three are suspected, and three people have died already – with many fearing that the disease may become a deadly outbreak.
The US is one of several countries who came to save the nearly 140 passengers and crew members trapped on board the ill-fated vessel.
Evacuations for Americans on board began Sunday evening local time, in conjunction with the Spanish government after MV Hondius docks in Tenerife.
Within about two and half hours, the passengers had disembarked the ship and were taken Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands, ABC News reported.
Passengers were tested for hantavirus and disembarked country by country, before boarding smaller boats in groups of five to head to shore for the plane ride.
The State Department told CBS News the US plane is being chartered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The CDC said Friday that they would provide their own ‘exposure risk assessment’ for the American passengers to help assess the level of monitoring needed.
The Americans will land at the Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, before going to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s new state-of-the-art biocontainment unit.
The CDC will also be sending a team to the university for support.
Medical staff talk with an American citizen after being evacuated from the MV Hondius in the Granadilla Port
The US evacuation plane will take the Americans to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha before going to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s new state-of-the-art biocontainment unit
All of the travelers will be quarantined on their own for the time being, according to Michael Wadman, medical director of the university’s National Quarantine Unit.
‘Each individual will have their own room,’ Wadman said, while adding that there is no standard quarantine period set for those being brought in.
‘Each of the rooms looks very much like a hotel room with the addition of availability of WiFi, exercise equipment. If the quarantine is prolonged, those would be important in terms of making sure they’re comfortable.’
The unit, which opened in 2019, comes from a $20 million Department of Health and Human Services grant, ABC News reported.
The dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha previously was used to treat Ebola patients and some of the first COVID-19 patients.
Nebraska Medicine is one of a handful of hospitals in the US with specialized treatment units for people with highly dangerous infectious diseases.
‘We are prepared for situations exactly like this,’ Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement.
Images of hazmat-suited medical workers airlifting gravely ill passengers from the MV Hondius earlier this week were hauntingly reminiscent of the darkest days of the Covid pandemic.
American citizens (Dressed in blue) are evacuated in a small boat from the MV Hondius
A plane bound for the US carrying passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius
Meanwhile, passengers who previously left the stricken vessel are now under home quarantine and being closely monitored, including Americans in six states – Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.
In the latest worrying twist, a Spanish woman who was on the same flight as a passenger who later died from the disease has reportedly been hospitalized with a suspected infection.
She was said to have been ‘two rows behind the person who died’ and had ‘only brief contact’. No further details have been released.
Those most at risk of severe illness are believed to include older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and anyone exposed to a high dose of the virus – for example through prolonged exposure to contaminated rodent droppings or dust. In the US, hantavirus remains extremely rare.
The CDC says 890 cases were reported between 1993 and the end of 2023 – an average of about 30 cases a year.
Worldwide, however, the WHO estimates there are between 10,000 and more than 100,000 infections annually, with the largest burden in Asia and Europe.
However, experts say the strain involved in the cruise ship outbreak is not significant different to other Andes virus outbreaks, and shows no signs of mutation.
The World Health Organization considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.
Nebraska Medicine’s Davis Global Center where American passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will quarantine
On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger has tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’ potential transmissibility.
However, the outbreak has inevitably raised alarm – not least because hantavirus is little known outside medical circles, has no specific cure, and can in some cases trigger catastrophic lung failure within days.
Symptoms usually begin between one and eight weeks after exposure.
They advise anyone who develops symptoms after a possible hantavirus exposure to seek medical attention promptly.
Warning signs include fever, muscle aches, breathing difficulties, chest tightness, severe weakness or symptoms developing after known exposure to rodents or an infected person.
In those circumstances, doctors say people should seek urgent medical advice and inform healthcare providers about any possible hantavirus exposure.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the virus is ‘very much, we hope, under control.’
‘We have a lot of people, a lot of great people, studying it,’ Trump added. ‘It should be fine, we hope.’
