90-Second Read: Bend doctor Stephen Kornfeld tests positive for Hantavirus after cruise; cases continue to rise

Stephen Kornfeld, the retired Bend doctor who stepped in to care for passengers on the cruise ship overwhelmed by a deadly Hantavirus, has tested positive for the virus, he told CNN Tuesday. The outbreak of the Andes Hantavirus on the MV Hondius has now reached about a dozen cases, with three deaths. When he took over as the ship's unofficial doctor, after the cruise's physician fell ill, his job primarily was to monitor patients and make them as comfortable as possible, as well as allay the fears of other passengers and help staff keep them from getting sick.

The retired Oregon doctor, who aided passengers during an outbreak of the deadly virus on a cruise, said he is asymptomatic so far. A French woman who was on the ship is reportedly now in intensive care in a Paris hospital. Kornfeld, himself a dedicated birder, took the polar cruise with plans to search out various rare birds at remote islands.

There isn't a cure or specific treatment for Hantavirus infection. Contact tracing for those who left the ship prior to quarantining continues. Kornfeld is now in a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and is asymptomatic.