The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly sending personnel to the Canary Islands to meet a cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak. American passengers will be flown back to the US on a chartered flight and placed into quarantine in Nebraska, according to unnamed sources cited by CNN.
An additional CDC team is already en route to Nebraska, where the federally supported National Quarantine Unit and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit are located. Nebraska Medicine confirmed it remains in close coordination with national partners regarding the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The US State Department is organising the repatriation effort alongside the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Spanish government. A spokesperson said the agency is in direct communication with Americans on board and will provide consular assistance once the ship arrives in Tenerife, Spain.
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Department of Health is monitoring two residents for potential hantavirus exposure after an international flight. The individuals may have had contact with an infected person who recently departed the Hondius. Neither has symptoms, and the risk to the general public remains very low.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship's operator, estimates 17 Americans are on board. Other states involved in monitoring residents include Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia. There are now three suspected and five confirmed cases of Andes virus, a type of hantavirus, with three deaths and three hospitalisations.
