Before returning home, American guests from a cruise ship affected by the hantavirus will make a detour at a facility in Nebraska. What we know is as follows:
The World Health Organization claims
that the virus, which is usually linked to rodents, may have spread from person
to person on the MV Hondius cruise liner. Three members of the ship have passed
away since April 11, and a few more are ill.
The US Department of Health and
Human Services announced late on Sunday that one American had tested positive
for the virus and another had minor symptoms. In a post on X, HHS stated that
both were flying in biocontainment units "out of an abundance of
caution."
The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha announced late on Sunday that the passenger who tested positive does not exhibit any symptoms and will be transported straight to the biocontainment unit. The remaining travelers will be evaluated and observed at the National Quarantine Unit.
CNN has contacted HHS to request
additional details about the travelers.
EVALUATION IN THE CANARY ISLANDS
On Sunday night, the passengers were observed being transported from the cruise liner to shore on smaller boats while donning blue masks and protective gear.
According to a CDC official, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
personnel were scheduled to assess the US passengers from the MV Hondius cruise
ship as well as one British national who lives in the US in Tenerife.
ONE MORE VISIT TO OMAHA
According to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after returning to the United States, the passengers would be airlifted to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for additional evaluation.
According to Nebraska Medicine, the Omaha facility is "the only federally
funded quarantine unit in the United States, designed specifically to safely
house and monitor people who may have been exposed to high-consequence
infectious diseases."
Twenty 300-square-foot,
single-person rooms have negative air pressure devices installed to keep any
potential diseases at bay. For patients staying for extended periods of time,
doctors there compare them to hotel rooms with built-in restrooms, exercise
equipment, food delivery, and Wi-Fi.
Earlier, a CDC official stated that the agency was viewing this as a quick
visit to keep an eye on the health of the cruise ship passengers rather than a
quarantine.
Dr. H. Dele Davis, the hospital's
acting chancellor, told CNN that the 18 travelers will be examined for signs of
the early stages of hantavirus, such as fever, muscle aches, and diarrhea.
According to a CDC official, passengers who do not exhibit symptoms will not be
tested for the hantavirus because it is not advised to do so.
According to Nebraska Medicine
officials, anyone who does become ill may be moved to the Nebraska
Biocontainment Unit, a specialized facility on-site that previously treated
patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and some of the first Covid-19 patients
from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in 2020.
The remaining passengers will
subsequently be transported by airlift to one of over a dozen Regional Emerging
Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, which are regional centers dedicated to
special pathogen preparedness. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness
and Response, a division of HHS, collaborates closely with the centers. If
safety procedures permit, the passengers will also have the choice to return
home following their evaluation in Omaha, National Institutes of Health
Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday.
The CDC will interview the travelers
to assess their risk, according to Bhattacharya, who is also the agency's
interim director. If they did not interact with someone who was exhibiting
symptoms, they would be considered "low risk."
The CDC would advise the travelers to "stay in Nebraska if they'd like, or
if they want to go back home and their home situation allows it, to safely
drive them home without exposing others on the way, and then be put in the
control... under the auspices of their state and local public health
agencies," according to Bhattacharya.
MONITORING EVERY DAY AT HOME
According to a CDC official, the
passengers will be monitored at home every day for the next 42 days when they
return home.
According to Nebraska Medicine, the objective is to keep an eye on the
travelers during the virus's up to six-week incubation phase and lower the
chance of the illness spreading.
Passengers who do not test positive will not be placed in quarantine, according
to health officials, but they will be instructed to take particular safety
measures.
A CDC representative stated, "If it's a
high-risk exposure, there will be some modified activities that we would
recommend, limiting activities outside the house that don't involve extensive
interactions with other people." "They should also collaborate with
their health departments regarding the environment surrounding other
activities."
HOW WE ARRIVED AND WHAT COMES NEXT
According to the WHO, there is still
little risk to the general population from the hantavirus outbreak, which was
initially reported to them on May 2.
Although this strain, the Andes virus, can occasionally pass person-to-person
through extremely close, continuous contact with an infected individual, the
Hantavirus usually infects people by contact with rodent urine or droppings.
According to a person with knowledge of the issue, the CDC has designated its
hantavirus response as Level 3, the organization's lowest level of emergency.
As of May 8, the MV Hondius cruise
ship was linked to eight cases in total: two probable cases and six
lab-confirmed cases.
Spanish health authorities reported that all of the passengers who were tested
on Sunday after the ship docked in Tenerife were asymptomatic. The prime
minister of France stated that all five evacuees on that aircraft will be
placed under isolation protocols after one of the passengers later displayed
symptoms when returning home.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE FATALITIES ON CRUISE SHIPS
Following a possible hantavirus
outbreak on a ship that is currently stranded in the Canary Islands, where passengers
started to depart on May 10, three people have died and numerous others are
ill.
Five states—Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia—are keeping an
eye on seven additional American passengers who earlier disembarked the ship,
according to officials.
Utah confirmed that at least one passenger was from that state, and New Jersey
stated it is also keeping an eye on two individuals who were exposed.
Fever, chills, nausea, vomiting,
diarrhea, coughing, breathing difficulties, and chest pain are some of the
symptoms.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that this hantavirus
epidemic is "not another Covid-19" in an attempt to allay worries
before the passengers disembarked.
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