Eighteen (18) US passengers evacuated from a cruise ship after possible exposure to hantavirus are being tightly monitored by health officials. Authorities reveal, risk of the virus to the public remains “very, very low”.
According to officials, one (1) passenger aboard the Dutch vessel MV Hondius has tested positive for the Andes virus – a rare type of hantavirus – while another is showing soft symptoms.
The positive result marks the first confirmed case involving a US passenger. Two people are being observed in Atlanta, the Capital of Georgia. Sixteen (16) others are in Nebraska State at America’s only national quarantine unit.
Over ninety (90) passenger of the cruise ship, docked currently in the Canary Islands of Spain, are being repatriated.
On Monday morning, Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska, at a press conference alongside health officials, said: “No-one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door onto the streets of Omaha”.
Some passengers were flown to Atlanta in an effort to conserve space at the facility in Nebraska, including the passenger that showed soft symptoms, Brendan Jackson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
US Health and Human Services department (HHS) official, Admiral Brian Christine, said: “Let me be crystal clear: the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low.”
Photo: Personnel from various agencies assist in the disembarkation of passengers evacuated from the cruise ship MV Hondius, as their chartered flight arrived in Omaha, Nebraska | Reuters
