Five of the 18 people transported from the Canary Islands (Spain) to the United States after traveling on a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus outbreak have been released from quarantine and returned home, authorities announced.
The five individuals will continue to be monitored at home after showing no symptoms and meeting the criteria for follow-up outside the quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the central United States.
They are leaving the city of Omaha about three weeks after arriving in Nebraska along with 13 other passengers following a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship that was sailing across the South Atlantic Ocean.
Federal authorities arranged transportation for the five individuals returning home in coordination with state and local authorities.
Officials said the travel would not take place on commercial flights and that appropriate biocontainment measures were being implemented.
State health departments will continue to monitor the five passengers on a daily basis.
Those repatriated from the cruise include 17 US citizens and one British citizen residing in the United States.
None of the 18 individuals have developed symptoms, a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center said on Monday.
The Hondius, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, arrived in the Canary Islands on May 10 after a voyage that began in Ushuaia, Argentina, and included visits to several Atlantic islands.
During the journey, several cases of hantavirus were reported, resulting in three deaths.
In a statement, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that three additional hantavirus cases — one in France, one in Spain, and one in Canada — had been identified since passengers left the ship.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 11 hantavirus cases linked to the cruise, including three deaths. Eight cases have been confirmed through laboratory testing.
The source of the outbreak remains unknown. However, according to the WHO, the first infection likely occurred before the expedition began on April 1, as the first passenger to die, a 70-year-old Dutch man, developed symptoms as early as April 6.
The virus has an incubation period ranging from one to six weeks, and there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for hantavirus, which can cause acute respiratory syndrome.
According to the WHO, the fatality rate — the percentage of infected individuals who die from the disease — currently stands at 27% in this outbreak.
