CDC to Bring Americans From Hantavirus Cruise to Nebraska Quarantine Unit

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sending personnel to meet American passengers aboard the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, and escort them back to the United States for quarantine at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska.

The plan comes as U.S. and international health officials race to contain a rare but serious outbreak of hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius, which is expected to arrive Sunday in Tenerife, Spain. Reuters reported that 17 American passengers are aboard the ship and that the U.S. Department of State is arranging a repatriation flight.

A State Department spokesperson said the department is “closely tracking the hantavirus outbreak” and maintaining contact with the cruise operator, Americans on board, and U.S. and international health authorities.

The CDC said in a statement that the administration is monitoring the situation and that the State Department is leading a “coordinated, whole-of-government response.” The National Quarantine Unit, located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, is a 20-bed federal facility designed to monitor and care for people exposed to high-consequence pathogens. UNMC says the unit provides quarantine monitoring and care for those exposed to dangerous infectious agents.

“We cannot discuss specific communications at this time, but our specialized teams, including the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and National Quarantine Unit, are staffed and ready, if needed, to safely provide care while protecting our staff and the community,” the university said to CNN.

The Nebraska campus also houses the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, which treats patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases. Nebraska Medicine says the unit uses trained staff, secured access, isolated ventilation, and HEPA filtration to protect health care workers and the community. The World Health Organization said the outbreak was reported on May 2 after a cluster of severe respiratory illness aboard the cruise ship.

As of May 4, the WHO had identified seven cases, including two laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections, five suspected cases, and three deaths. Illness onsets occurred between April 6 and April 28 and included fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and shock.

Health officials have stressed that the risk to the broader public remains low. WHO said hantavirus infection is usually acquired through contact with urine, feces, or saliva from infected rodents.

The CDC says hantaviruses are spread mainly by rodents, though the Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to spread person to person, usually through close contact with an ill person. Spanish authorities are preparing a tightly controlled arrival for the MV Hondius in the Canary Islands.

The Associated Press reported that passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” according to Virginia Barcones, head of Spain’s emergency services. AP also reported that passengers are expected to be moved in guarded, isolated vehicles and through cordoned-off airport areas before repatriation flights. “This is not a new COVID,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said, according to AP, after a flight attendant who had raised concern about possible exposure tested negative. “The risk remains absolutely low.”