The first wave of 150 American passengers from the MV Hondius has landed in Omaha…
Evacuees were hosed down with disinfectant and moved in high-level isolation pods…
Omaha’s Biocontainment Unit is now under 24/7 federal military guard…
One passenger on a separate flight to France reportedly fell ill mid-air…
World Health Organization says the public risk is low but respirators are mandatory…
The ship itself is being redirected to the Netherlands for deep-clean disinfection…
Health officials are tracing the outbreak back to bird watching in Argentina…
Seeing hazmat suits on Nebraska soil is going to trigger some deep-seated 2020 anxiety.
The bird-watching-to-bio-crisis pipeline is the most random tragedy of the year.
If that flight to France results in a secondary outbreak, the travel ban is next.
16 Americans (plus one dual citizen) arrived at Offutt AFB via Tenerife on May 11.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The last remaining passengers on a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak disembarked Monday and boarded flights to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine. A French woman was the latest to be confirmed as infected, while an American is suspected of infection after initial testing.
Passengers began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that concluded Monday.
“If they stayed longer on the ship, the situation could have been difficult,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization. He said citizens of the countries passengers are returning to should know “there is nothing to fear, the risk is low, this is not another COVID.”
Three cruise ship passengers have died, and six people with confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus are being quarantined, according to the WHO. The lab results of the American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday.
Hantaviruses are typically found in temperate or tropical grasslands where their rodent hosts (like deer mice or rice rats) thrive. The Arctic and Antarctic regions where the Hondius primarily operates are naturally sterile environments for these specific vectors.
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS); viral respiratory disease with ~38% mortality.
Hantaviruses can infect and cause serious disease in people worldwide. People get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings, and saliva. It can also spread through a bite or scratch by a rodent, but this is rare.
Hantaviruses cause two syndromes. Hantaviruses found in the Western Hemisphere, including here in the United States, can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The most common hantavirus that causes HPS in the United States is spread by the deer mouse.
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a group of clinically similar illnesses caused by hantaviruses found mostly in Europe and Asia. However, Seoul virus, a type of hantavirus that causes HFRS, is found worldwide, including in the United States.
The more than a dozen Americans who were aboard a cruise ship amid a hantavirus outbreak were back in the U.S. after being evacuated. Sixteen passengers were transferred to Omaha, Nebraska, while two others were taken to Atlanta, Georgia. https://abc7.com/live-updates/19064881