Healthcare workers in full hazmat suits have rushed two hantavirus-infected cruise passengers to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, as captured in dramatic footage. The patients had just returned to the United States after a five-week voyage aboard the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly outbreak that claimed three lives and sparked an international incident.
Patients Admitted to Biocontainment Unit
Video shows medics in protective gear dashing out to ambulances and stretchering the patients into critical care at Emory University Hospital. The hospital confirmed both passengers arrived from the MV Hondius following the outbreak. One patient is symptomatic and receiving care in Emory's biocontainment unit, while the other is asymptomatic and under evaluation. The two had disembarked the virus-plagued ship in the Canary Islands before being transported to Atlanta's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Officials Reassure Public
A spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) stated: "Federal health care workers are taking every precaution needed in each of these cases, and there is no risk to the public at this time." Early symptoms of hantavirus include fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues, which can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure, and shock. DPH officials noted a US case fatality rate of about 35 per cent.
There are nearly 40 strains of hantavirus worldwide, with the rare Andes strain being the only one known to transmit between humans. Typically, spread occurs via rodent faeces, saliva, or urine. Emory University epidemiologist Dr Jodie Guest described hantavirus as a "dead-end virus," emphasising that it does not cause pandemics. "Normally, we consider the hantavirus a dead-end virus, meaning one person gets it from a rodent, and then that is the only person who will get it," she said.
Dr Nicole Iovine, chief epidemiologist at University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, added that hantavirus transmission differs from flu or coronavirus. "These viruses affect the upper airways, mainly, so speaking and coughing can easily transmit it. The hantavirus and the Andes virus tend to infect very deep in the lungs, so it is not as easily transmitted through the air." No vaccine exists for hantavirus infection, according to the World Health Organisation.
