US Citizen Infected With Hantavirus Now Isolated in Nebraska
(Bloomberg) — A US citizen who was infected with hantavirus from the Hondius cruise ship is being cared for in a biocontainment unit in Nebraska, US health officials said Monday, while another who developed symptoms despite not testing positive is being treated at Emory University in Atlanta.
Fifteen US citizens who were exposed to the rare disease are being isolated at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska, according to Brendan Jackson, acting director for high-consequence pathogens at the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The partner of the Atlanta patient is also being monitored at Emory.
A total of 18 Americans have departed the Hondius for America, according to a media briefing with federal and local officials held by the University of Nebraska Medical Center. One of those people from the ship holds joint US-UK citizenship.
The US officials said that anyone who was within 6 feet (1.8 meters) for 15 minutes of a person infected with hantavirus would be considered in “close contact” under a conservative approach.
The infected American and another French passenger tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus less than a day after passengers were evacuated from the expedition vessel. There have been at least eight confirmed infections. All were caused by the Andes strain, the only one known to move from person to person.
The French woman developed symptoms on the repatriation flight from the Canary Islands and worsened overnight, the country’s health minister said. She and four other French passengers are now hospitalized and in isolation.
Governments are taking extensive precautions after a multi-country response to evacuate passengers from the Dutch-flagged ship at the center of an outbreak that’s left three people dead. While public-health authorities continue to say the general risk from hantavirus is low and broader contagion is unlikely, others are urging caution to contain the outbreak.
“It’s a virus we know,” French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. “The incubation period is quite long and we need to break the potential chain of transmission from the start.”
The French passengers will be isolated for 42 days as France takes the strictest measures of any European Union country, Rist said.
The US is taking a less stringent approach.
“We don’t want to treat it like Covid,” Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the CDC, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “We don’t want to cause a public panic over this.”
Bhattacharya said that most US patients will be given the choice to stay in an isolation unit or return to their communities to quarantine if “their home situation allows it.” They will be under the supervision of state and local public-health agencies with CDC support, he said.
Vigilant government responses reflect the uncertainty that remains around how the virus may have spread on the ship, even as health authorities emphasize that hantavirus is far less transmissible than Covid-19.
Repatriation flights began Sunday after the ship anchored off Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, with passengers being flown to countries that also include Spain, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands, according to WHO officials. The agency has recommended active monitoring of travelers for up to 42 days, reflecting the virus’s long incubation period.
Australia will repatriate and quarantine six people from the ship, Health Minister Mark Butler said Monday, even though none are showing symptoms.
Several people left the Hondius earlier during the voyage, including a British resident who is now being monitored for a suspected infection in Tristan da Cunha. The UK government said military personnel parachuted onto the remote island territory to deliver medical supplies, underscoring the logistical challenges of reaching what is considered one of the world’s most isolated locations.
Some experts say the outbreak may challenge assumptions about how the virus spreads. Emerging evidence suggests transmission may not always require prolonged close contact, Ashish Jha, former White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said in a post on X, calling for strict quarantine measures for passengers.
Previous research on Andes hantavirus outbreaks has found transmission occurring in shared settings without direct physical contact, including brief encounters in crowded indoor environments, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
–With assistance from James Mayger and Marthe Fourcade.
(Updates with details of US citizens’ care and defines “close contact.”)
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