Eighteen people are being monitored in US medical facilities for hantavirus, including one who tested positive for the rare disease, public health officials said Monday.
The patients include Americans and one British dual national, officials said during a press conference.
All 18 were passengers aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, the focal point of the outbreak. So far, three people have died and others have contracted the rare disease, which is typically tied to rodents.
Passengers were evacuated from the ship in the Spanish Canary Islands on Sunday.
“The risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” said Brian Christine, a US Department of Health and Human Services official. “Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously.”
Sixteen individuals are being evaluated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has specialized facilities for people potentially exposed to high-consequence infectious diseases.
One patient is in a biocontainment unit after testing positive for the Andes strain of the virus, and 15 people who are asymptomatic are in a quarantine unit.
Two people, a couple, were transferred to Atlanta’s Emory University and are being monitored in a biocontainment unit, after one of the individuals experienced symptoms.
Several other states — Georgia, Texas, Arizona, California, Virginia and New Jersey — are tracking additional people who had previously disembarked from the cruise ship, or had been potentially exposed.
“The state health departments have been monitoring them on a daily basis, including symptoms and temperature checks,” said Brendan Jackson, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official focused on high-consequence pathogens.
“They have plans in place to make sure that they can isolate effectively in their home,” Jackson said.
“If they are developing symptoms, they have ways to get tested safely and to make sure that they’re not going to spread it to others.”
Global health authorities have repeatedly emphasized that the broader risk to public health from the outbreak is low.
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