90-Second Read: Metro Atlanta infectious disease specialist says Hantavirus quarantine is the right move

Workers from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet the American passengers this weekend and take them to a special quarantine facility in Nebraska. Seventeen Americans are on the ship where an outbreak of the Hantavirus has killed three people. Doctor Andrew Pugliese has treated infectious diseases for 33 years. Health officials believe there is little risk to the general public because it is not as easily transmitted as the flu or covid. He told Channel 2's Berndt Petersen the disease is treatable if caught early.

It's an airborne disease from rodent droppings, and it is fatal for up to 35% of people who get it. International health officials say passengers aboard a cruise ship traveling from South America to Antarctica, to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, probably picked it up during the first leg of the journey in Argentina. As for several other Americans still aboard, the CDC will transport them to a special quarantine unit in Nebraska. It usually causes a pulmonary syndrome, where you leak fluid into the lungs, and you can't breathe. Make sure this strain of the virus is not more contagious from what we've known from the past.

Despite protests, the boat will be allowed to dock outside a port in the Canary Islands. On Friday, he was looking at images on a computer in his Forsyth County office. Have you personally ever seen a case or treated a patient who had it?" Petersen asked. The Georgia Department of Public Health says they are back home, currently in good health, and showing no signs of infection.