90-Second Read: Risk of Hantavirus spread low, CDC says as passengers are monitored

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday the risk of a member of the general public contracting Hantavirus remains low despite several passengers on a cruise ship becoming infected with the disease. The passengers that are being monitored who were on shared flights were separate from the passengers who were on the ship at the time the outbreak was detected. David Fitter, incident manager for the agency's Hantavirus response, said that unlike the coronavirus pandemic that spread around the world in 2020, Hantavirus is not new to public health officials.

Healthcare providers at the site have been talking with each passenger about whether they may have been exposed to any of the people with confirmed cases. So they had actually left the ship before the outbreak was detected. CDC officials are working with local and state public health officials to ensure anyone who may have been exposed outside of the cruise ship isolates at home and monitors themselves for symptoms.

The officials on the call declined to say how many people are being monitored for possible exposure or where they are located in the country, citing privacy concerns. They also declined to talk about the two cruise ship passengers taken to Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit in Georgia. Brendan Jackson, an epidemiologist and the agency's team lead in Nebraska, said Americans who were on the MV Hondius cruise ship after others were diagnosed with the illness were flown to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.