The cruise ship at the center of an unprecedented Andes hantavirus outbreak has docked in the Canary Islands, and the first US evacuees have arrived stateside.
On Monday, the World Health Organization confirmed that 147 people were on the MV Hondius. Passengers are being evacuated via non-commercial repatriation flights. A new case was confirmed in a French citizen, bringing the outbreak tally to nine cases and three deaths.
A potential 10th case is a US passenger.
The Department of Health and Human Services said 18 Americans were flown to Omaha, Nebraska, home of the only National Quarantine Unit. In a Monday press briefing, officials confirmed that range of evacuees is from their late 20s to early 80s. Two passengers were flown in special biocontainment units: one person who tested “mildly positive” and a second with symptoms.
Fifteen of the 18 are asymptomatic and in standard quarantine. The “mildly positive” patient is in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. A second couple, one of whom had symptoms, were moved to a biocontainment unit at Emory University in Atlanta to preserve capacity at Nebraska.
Andes hantavirus is rare, but it is the only hantavirus known to transmit human-to-human during close, prolonged contact. The quarantine period is 42 days. Officials are monitoring for the life-threatening infection, which requires high-level care, including ECMO.