90-Second Read: 5 Hantavirus cruise ship passengers leave quarantine facility as transparency concerns grow

Five passengers from the Hantavirus cruise ship have been allowed to leave a secure quarantine facility in Nebraska and continue being monitored at home, but 13 others remain at the secure facility, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Healthbeat on Monday. Officials at HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not answer questions about why some passengers are being allowed to leave the facility after 21 days of a 42-day quarantine or why others are remaining inside a secure, institutionalized setting. So far, health officials in multiple countries have identified 10 additional cases of Andes Hantavirus among people who were among the nearly 150 passengers and crew aboard the ship, according to the World Health Organization's latest update on May 28.

At least two affected cruise ship passengers will be under round-the-clock monitoring at home. The lack of transparency and inconsistency in the federal government's approach to managing potential public health risks in the wake of a deadly outbreak of Andes Hantavirus is drawing concern from legal experts and public health officials. Rosmarin said the process that federal officials have set up to allow some Hondius passengers to leave the facility is complex and involves federal, state, and local authorities.

The passengers had initially been "requested" to stay at the facility for testing and monitoring through May 31. Nuzzo noted that some passengers who disembarked the Hondius cruise ship after the first passengers died but before health officials were aware of an outbreak, have been allowed to quarantine at home since their return to the United States. Nor have they provided any public health or scientific basis for how potential risks from former passengers of the M/V Hondius are being managed.