Mapping the hantavirus outbreak as cruise ship passengers return to US
Passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius stricken by the Andes variant of hantavirus, are being evacuated home, including 18 Americans who were flown to a military base in Omaha and then to U.S. medical centers.
The U.S. passengers left the vessel, anchored near Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, on May 10 and landed in Nebraska on May 11 aboard a U.S. government medical repatriation flight.
Sixteen of those passengers were sequestered at the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska.
The other two, a couple, were taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. One of them was experiencing hantavirus symptoms but tested negative for the virus.
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A total of 94 passengers of 19 nationalities evacuated from the ship on May 10, the first day of evacuations, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said at a news conference.
Passengers were taken from the ship to shore in small boats and transported to Tenerife airport in military buses, without coming into contact with the public, according to Reuters.
Health officials in the Trump administration said the hantavirus situation was under control.
"The country is prepared, and the CDC is focused on it, and the agency is well aware of the opportunities to actually treat this problem, not just try to prevent in the future, but treat if it happens," said Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a press briefing on May 11.
"We have this under control, and we're not worried about it," added Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A total of nine cases, including three deaths, have been connected to the hantavirus outbreak as of May 11, according to the World Health Organization.
The latest case was reported by France and involved a passenger who disembarked the ship one day earlier, Olivier le Polain, unit head of epidemiology and analytics for response with the WHO, said.
The MV Hondius set sail for the Netherlands on Monday night after evacuating passengers from nearly two dozen countries, officials reported.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College of Medicine's National School of Tropical Medicine, told USA TODAY that there may be some new cases arising as people get set to head to their home countries. However, it’s unlikely to cause a wider epidemic, let alone a pandemic, given how the virus has spread.
Still, the current outbreak is a warning sign of what’s to come with zoonotic diseases that move from animals to people, public health experts say.
“We have to be aware of the fact that zoonotic spillover epidemics are increasing with frequency and overall in severity,” said Hotez.
“And this won't be the last one.”
CONTRIBUTING: Natalie Neysa Alund, Eduardo Cuevas, Melina Khan, Thao Nguyen, Ramon Padilla, Daniel de Vise and Shawn J. Sullivan.
SOURCES: USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization
This is a developing story which may be updated.