WASHINGTON — US health officials are intensifying efforts to contain a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship as American passengers prepare to return to the United States for quarantine monitoring, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.The ship is expected to dock on Sunday in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where personnel from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been deployed to assist 17 American passengers on board, the newspaper reported.The US State Department is arranging a repatriation flight for the Americans, who will later be transferred to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for monitoring and medical evaluation.The MV Hondius, carrying around 150 passengers and crew members from 23 countries, departed from Argentina and crossed the Atlantic before reporting a cluster of respiratory illnesses while sailing near Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa.The CDC has classified the outbreak as a Level 3 emergency response, the agency’s lowest emergency activation level.According to World Health Organization officials, the outbreak involving the Andes strain of hantavirus has resulted in five confirmed infections, including three deaths.Scientists confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the rare Andes variant of hantavirus, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, typically through close contact.The WHO said two passengers who later died had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship.CDC officials said passengers would be monitored for approximately six weeks, reflecting the virus’s incubation period. Health authorities across several US states are also tracking travelers who had already left the vessel before the outbreak was confirmed.WASHINGTON — US health officials are intensifying efforts to contain a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship as American passengers prepare to return to the United States for quarantine monitoring, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.The ship is expected to dock on Sunday in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where personnel from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been deployed to assist 17 American passengers on board, the newspaper reported.The US State Department is arranging a repatriation flight for the Americans, who will later be transferred to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for monitoring and medical evaluation.The MV Hondius, carrying around 150 passengers and crew members from 23 countries, departed from Argentina and crossed the Atlantic before reporting a cluster of respiratory illnesses while sailing near Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa.The CDC has classified the outbreak as a Level 3 emergency response, the agency’s lowest emergency activation level.According to World Health Organization officials, the outbreak involving the Andes strain of hantavirus has resulted in five confirmed infections, including three deaths.Scientists confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the rare Andes variant of hantavirus, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, typically through close contact.The WHO said two passengers who later died had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship.CDC officials said passengers would be monitored for approximately six weeks, reflecting the virus’s incubation period. Health authorities across several US states are also tracking travelers who had already left the vessel before the outbreak was confirmed.
US deploys CDC teams as deadly hantavirus outbreak spreads on cruise ship
