Hantavirus Cruise Ship Outbreak Prompts Mandatory Quarantine Disputes as CDC Contains Rare Infection
American passengers from a cruise ship that became the center of a hantavirus outbreak are complaining about forced quarantine at a Nebraska facility after three deaths from the rare Andes virus strain.
Cruise Ship Outbreak and Quarantine Conflict
A man from New York state who was on board the Hondius cruise ship — which became the center of an outbreak of hantavirus that killed three people earlier this month — compared being forced to quarantine at the Nebraska health facility to being in "prison." The 30-year-old man, who asked not to be identified because of concerns for his safety and harassment of other named passengers, told NBC News by phone that he wants to be able to quarantine at home.
Instead, he and several others are being kept at a facility in Omaha for up to 42 days, the full incubation period for hantavirus. The extended confinement has sparked tensions between public health authorities and isolated individuals who argue they pose minimal risk in home isolation.
Changed Quarantine Orders
The New York man said he was contacted by an official from the New York Health Department upon his arrival last week to ask how they could assist him in quarantining at home. But then, on Sunday, he says CDC staff told all 18 Americans on a Zoom call that, in fact, they could not leave. He says passengers were told that if they tried to leave, they'd receive a formal quarantine order.
The man says he requested to see the legal documents prohibiting him from leaving and has since received two federal quarantine orders, reviewed by NBC News. "What we don't understand is why they suddenly changed their minds and told us that we can't follow the CDC guidelines and complete the quarantines at home," he said.
Virus Characteristics and Deaths
The passengers were infected with the Andes species, for which there are no specific treatments or vaccines. Scientists suspect that some of the travellers might have been infected in Argentina before boarding the cruise. Although hantavirus infections are rare, some species have a fatality rate of up to 50%. For more than three decades, Jay Hooper, a virologist at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Maryland, has been working to develop a vaccine against several species of hantavirus that can infect people, including the Andes virus.
CDC Facility Defense
In response to the passenger's description of the facility as a "prison," the CDC referred to comments by Dr. David Fitter, incident manager for the agency's hantavirus response. "It is a fantastic facility. We really appreciate the state of Nebraska, as well as the University of Nebraska, Medical Center for everything they have done," he said May 13.