U.S. cruise passengers head to Nebraska for hantavirus monitoring

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. cruise passengers head to Nebraska for hantavirus monitoring May 10, 20269:42 PM ET Pien Huang American citizens arrive onshore after being evacuated from the M/V Hondius in the Granadilla Port on Sunday in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. Chris McGrath/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chris McGrath/Getty Images Seventeen U. cruise passengers are expected to return stateside early Monday, after weeks aboard the M/V Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.

The Americans are disembarking the cruise in the Canary Islands and boarding a medical repatriation flight, arranged by the U. government, bound for Nebraska. After landing at the Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, they'll head to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for an initial evaluation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Details

"For the passengers getting off the ship, I'd say, 'Welcome to Nebraska. ' You are coming to the premier facility in the United States, if not the world, to take care of you," says Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at UNMC.

Sponsor Message Global Health Is hantavirus the next COVID? An outbreak update The 17 U. passengers are among the total of nearly 150 people who were on the ship from 23 different countries.

They've endured in the midst of a hantavirus outbreak which has caused at least eight cases, including three deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The returning Americans had been isolating in their cruise cabins. They will now be monitored for several more weeks, U.

What Experts Say

health officials said in a media call on Saturday. The passengers are arriving at America's only federally funded quarantine unit, which also received cruise passengers from a different outbreak — the Diamond Princess Cruise, in early 2020 — which was one of the first known superspreading events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike COVID, which was a novel pathogenic strain when it emerged, scientists have been studying hantaviruses — and specifically the Andes variant which caused this outbreak — for decades.

"We do know that you can get small clusters of disease, but in 30 years we've never seen any large outbreaks," says Khan, "so this is unlikely to become a pandemic. " This strain of hantavirus can be deadly, but it isn't very contagious between people. It tends to take prolonged, close contact with someone who's showing symptoms.

So far, all of the U. But symptoms can take up to 42 days after exposure to show up, according to the CDC. Sponsor Message "It's appropriate to be cautious," Khan says, "To monitor these people for 42 days they don't get sick.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.