One U.S. passenger tested positive and another is showing mild symptoms
Credit: Chris McGrath/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Two American passengers from the hantavirus-infected cruise ship are traveling in biocontainment units due to mild symptoms and a positive test for Andes hantavirus
- The passengers will receive care at specialized pathogen treatment centers in Nebraska before moving to final destinations
- WHO reassured Tenerife residents that the hantavirus outbreak poses a low public health risk despite the cruise ship docking nearby
American passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak are returning to the country.
On Sunday, May 10, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) shared an update on X, noting that 17 American citizens from the cruise ship are in the process of being “repatriated” into the United States.
“All 17 are currently en route via @StateDept airlift to the United States, with two of the passengers travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution,” the HHS shared. “One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.”
The Andes hantavirus originates in South America, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, it can cause a severe respiratory disease in people, called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). It is spread through contact with rodents and rarely through contact with a sick person who has the virus.
The HHS noted that the American passengers are being transported to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Neb.
The department noted that after their time at those facilities, the passengers with the mild symptoms will then be taken to “a second RESPTC at its final destination.”
According to the BBC, the American passengers will be assessed and monitored for 42 days.
Credit: Chris McGrath/Getty
There are eight suspected cases linked to the boat, three of which were confirmed as hantavirus by laboratory testing, according to a WHO update shared on May 6.
According to French Health Minister Stephanie Rist, a French woman also tested positive for hantavirus and her condition has worsened in the hospital overnight, per the Associated Press. The French woman was among five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. The patient developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, French Health Minister Rist told local broadcaster France-Inter.
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The outbreak has been linked to three cruise ship passenger deaths so far. While none have been identified, NBC News reported that they are believed to be a Dutch couple and a German national. (One person is still being treated in an intensive care unit in South Africa.)
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The cruise ship docked on Tenerife, the largest and most populated of the Canary Islands on Sunday. Passengers were photographed wearing face masks, and plastic covers on their hair and clothes with their belongings in large plastic bags.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus penned a letter to the residents of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday, May 9, ahead of the cruise ship docking in the area and passengers disembarking the next day.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak' and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low," he continued. "My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now. … The risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO's assessment, and we do not make it lightly.”
The MV Hondius, carrying about 150 passengers, left Argentina on April 1 for the Canary Islands, with stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St. Helena, Ascension and Cape Verde, The New York Times previously reported.
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