90-Second Read: CDC declares ‘Level 3′ emergency response to Hantavirus outbreak

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the Hantavirus outbreak as a Level 3 emergency, which is the agency's lowest level. A Level 2 designation would require the agency's Hantavirus experts to lead the response with a large number of other experts. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low, and on Friday, confirmed that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative.

The designation, the agency's lowest level, means the CDC is actively monitoring the situation, but the risk to the general public is low. As part of the designation, the CDC is assigning disease experts to lead its response, and has activated its Emergency Operations Centers to assist. CDC staffers are on their way to meet an estimated 17 Americans on board the MV Hondius, the Dutch-flagged cruise ship at the center of the outbreak, which is headed for the Canary Islands off the northwestern African coast.

Meanwhile, the CDC is working with five states, Georgia, Arizona, California, Texas and Virginia, to monitor seven passengers who previously disembarked from the ship. It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed Hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO said. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus's potential transmissibility.