90-Second Read: CDC: ‘Risk to general public from Hantavirus is low’

Despite assurances, several experts are warning that person-to-person transmission may not be as rare as previously thought, often citing a 2018 outbreak of Hantavirus at a birthday party, also in Argentina. Finally today, the Illinois Department of Public Health said it is investigating a potential Hantavirus case in an Illinois resident not linked to the cruise ship. Public health staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet passengers in Tenerife, Spain as they deboard a cruise ship that has been at the center of a Hantavirus outbreak. Fitter also addressed the American who was reported to have had a "mildly positive" Hantavirus test earlier this week.

Among the 8 suspected cases, only 3 have been confirmed by laboratory testing. So far no cases have been identified in anyone other than passengers on the Dutch cruise ship. While one patient is in an intensive care unit at a South African hospital and three passengers are dead, the other suspected case-patients are reported to have mild illness. He clarified that the test was taken on board and was inclusive.

That event led to 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths, all traced to the index patient, who contracted the virus after exposure to rodents. Fitter and Jackson gave few details about the Americans who were aboard the ship, only confirming that they are encouraging those housed in a Nebraska containment center to stay there for 42 days, with day 1 being May 11, the day they disembarked. Kornfeld, who is at the Nebraska biocontainment center, reports that he feels "wonderful" and remains without any symptoms of the virus. Patients are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke if COVID spreads to the bloodstream, according to a new study.

Neither Fitter nor Jackson would say whether passengers who are testing negative for the virus could, at some point in the next 42 days, quarantine at home. In other news, the French passenger being treated at a Paris hospital in intensive care worsened overnight and is now on an artificial lung machine. US officials sought to reassure Americans that they are responding to the outbreak.