CDC Says 41 People Across 16 States Were Potentially Exposed to Andes Hantavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that some 41 people across 16 U.S. states have potentially been exposed to hantavirus and are being monitored for symptoms due to the recent outbreak on the Hondius cruise ship.

“The number of people being monitored for in the has grown to 41, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, as new details emerge about potential flight exposures and the conditions of passengers in quarantine from the affected M/V Hondius cruise ship”

CBS News

The CDC said the outbreak involves the only known strain of hantavirus that spreads from person to person, called the Andes strain, and that there are currently no known cases of the Andes strain in the U.S.

CBS News

Dr. Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit, said on TODAY that as of Wednesday morning, none of the individuals in Omaha were showing symptoms or had a fever.

The World Health Organization recommended that passengers remain in quarantine for 42 days, the length of the virus’s incubation period, and the CDC encouraged former passengers to stay in quarantine facilities for the full period, which started Monday.

TODAY also reported that since the outbreak started in April there have been 10 cases reported and three deaths, and that no new cases have been reported since May 2, according to World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

CBS News reported Thursday that the number of people being monitored for hantavirus grew to 41, and that 18 repatriated passengers from the cruise are being monitored at facilities in Nebraska and Georgia, including 16 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's National Quarantine Unit.

CBS News said none of the passengers currently in quarantine are symptomatic, and it quoted a passenger-turned-traveler, Rosmarin, saying, "I feel terrible, but it's the right decision."

CNBC

CBS News described a 42-day isolation period for those in quarantine, and it reported that Rosmarin said he was supposed to go to his cousin's wedding in Italy but "unfortunately I won't be making that."

CBS News also reported that Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, an Oregon oncologist who was aboard the cruise ship on vacation when the outbreak began, told CBS News on Wednesday that he tested negative and was moved from the biocontainment unit to the quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Angela Hewlett, who oversaw Kornfeld’s care, told CBS News that Kornfeld tested negative by PCR on two separate occasions and also tested negative for antibodies, making it unlikely his earlier flu-like symptoms were hantavirus-related.

The Intercept reported that New York City and state officials said the CDC did not warn New York public health authorities about a Manhattan resident who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship and traveled freely after leaving the ship.

“A Manhattan resident who was on the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak traveled freely after leaving the ship, and the U”

The Intercept

The Intercept quoted Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, saying, "If she’s on the loose, then we need to be aware of where she might come back to."

The Intercept said the woman was a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United States with residences in Manhattan and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it reported that she was one of 30 passengers who left the MV Hondius expedition cruise ship while it docked at Saint Helena island in the South Atlantic in late April after one passenger had already died.

The Intercept reported that a New York State Department of Health spokesperson told The Intercept that after raising the issue with the CDC, they learned that the agency had notified a different state of the woman’s possible exposure to the virus.

The Intercept also stated that all 18 U.S. citizens who returned to the country directly from the cruise are currently in quarantine in Omaha, Nebraska, and Atlanta, Georgia, while another 16 citizens who shared a plane with a woman evacuated to Johannesburg are being monitored.