Eighteen US Citizens Quarantined After Hantavirus Exposure Aboard Dutch Cruise Vessel
Eighteen American citizens evacuated from the Dutch cruise vessel MV Hondius are under close observation by health officials after possible exposure to hantavirus. One passenger has confirmed positive for the Andes virus, a rare hantavirus type, while a second individual exhibits mild symptoms.
Over 90 passengers from the cruise ship, currently docked in Spain’s Canary Islands, are being repatriated. This confirmed case represents the first involving a US passenger. Two individuals are being monitored in Atlanta, with the remaining sixteen at the national quarantine unit in Nebraska.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen stated, “No-one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door onto the streets of Omaha,” during a press conference. Brendan Jackson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that some passengers, including the symptomatic individual, were flown to Atlanta to preserve space at the Nebraska facility.
Admiral Brian Christine of the US Health and Human Services department (HHS) reiterated that “the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” clarifying that the Andes variant does not spread easily and requires prolonged, close contact with a symptomatic person. While most hantavirus strains, carried by rodents, do not transmit person-to-person, the Andes strain is an exception.
Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit, reported that the sixteen passengers in Nebraska are in “good shape” and “good spirits”. The individual who tested positive for the Andes virus is in a biocontainment facility and is asymptomatic. The CDC advised that mild cold symptoms would be treated as potential indications, necessitating extra caution.
Further testing is underway to evaluate an initial “mildly positive” PCR test result from a specimen collected on the ship. Passengers are expected to remain at the Nebraska facility for several days of assessment, with individual determinations to be made regarding the full 42-day quarantine period.
Three fatalities have been linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius, with two confirmed by the World Health Organisation as hantavirus-related. Two British nationals are currently receiving treatment in the Netherlands and South Africa for confirmed cases, and a British-US dual national is in quarantine in Nebraska.
