90-Second Read: Bend doctor tells CNN he tested positive for Hantavirus

A retired Bend doctor who was on a cruise ship where three people died after contracting the Hantavirus says he too has tested positive for the dangerous virus. Health authorities say it is the first Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. Now, he is one of 18 Americans under observation at specialized healthcare facilities designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases after three people died and others were sickened by a Hantavirus outbreak aboard the ship. The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, 9 of which have been confirmed.

While there is no cure or vaccine for Hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates. A Dutch couple, identified by the WHO as the first cruise passengers infected with Hantavirus, spent several months in Argentina and neighboring South American countries before boarding the cruise ship. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Charles Medical Center in Bend, told the news to CNN on Tuesday from a biocontainment unit in Nebraska.

Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America. Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. Another who tested positive for the virus is in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. Public health officials have said the risk of the virus spreading from passengers into the general public is very low and that healthy people are being quarantined as a precaution.

Lescure called it "the final stage of supportive care." With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected. We didn't really know it was the Hantavirus until the night we were supposed to disembark. The health ministry said its team will investigate the landfill and other locations the couple visited where rats known to carry the virus are found, although local officials in the province where the cruise departed have challenged the theory it began there.