90-Second Read: Quarantine ends for the last of the Hantavirus ship passengers in Nebraska

OMAHA, The last eight American passengers who endured 42 days in a specialized hospital quarantine unit after exposure to an unusual Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that killed three people have left the Nebraska facility. In addition to those people evacuated by health officials in full protective suits, at least 30 other passengers had left the ship earlier before the outbreak was documented. Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings, but the Hantavirus that caused the outbreak, called the Andes virus, may be able to spread between people in rare cases, health officials say.

When the ship eventually docked in the Netherlands, 25 crew members and two medical personnel were on board and had to quarantine. A total of 13 cases of the virus, including the three who died, were identified among people who were on the ship. Perryman and seven others spent six weeks at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

That monitoring period was set because symptoms of Hantavirus have taken as long as 42 days to appear in previous outbreaks. Sixteen were evacuated to the Nebraska quarantine unit in Omaha on May 11, and two other Americans joined them a few days later. More than 120 people were evacuated from the MV Hondius in Spain's Canary Islands early last month, including the 18 Americans who wound up in the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, though most were from other countries.