Dozens of people are being monitored for hantavirus tied to the deadly outbreak on board the cruise ship MV Hondius.
The World Health Organization said that as of May 15, there were a total of 10 reported cases of hantavirus stemming from the cruise ship, eight of which had been confirmed and two of which were probable. There have been three deaths.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that the risk to the global population remains low.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 41 people in the United States are being monitored for potential exposure linked to the MV Hondius, including 18 passengers currently in the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The two most recent arrivals had been at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and were transferred to Nebraska on Friday after being medically cleared. One of them had been admitted to Emory’s biocontainment unit with mild symptoms but tested negative; the other was a close contact who was asymptomatic.
Two other passengers were taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. One is in the hospital’s biocontainment unit with mild symptoms but has tested negative. The other person is considered a close contact and is being monitored.
Health officials in at least 10 states — Arizona, California, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and Washington — are monitoring residents for potential infections linked to the cruise ship.
But as of Friday morning, there were no known cases of hantavirus in the U.S.
Separately, New York State health officials are investigating a hantavirus case at Geneva High School in Ontario County — suspected to have been locally acquired and not connected to the cruise ship — that the Geneva City School District confirmed Thursday.
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