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UNMC to Quarantine U.S. Cruise Passengers Exposed to Hantavirus

The plan relies on the nation’s only federally funded quarantine unit in Omaha.

Overview

  • Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center will receive and monitor 17 American passengers from the M/V Hondius in the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha.
  • The CDC is dispatching teams to the Canary Islands to meet the group and repatriate them to the United States, according to CNN reporting.
  • Nebraska leaders, including Omaha’s mayor and the governor, said the state is ready to help and emphasized little to no public risk during transport and housing.
  • No U.S. passenger has a confirmed hantavirus case so far, and doctors said the Andes strain usually spreads only through very close contact.
  • The 20-bed unit features negative-pressure rooms and can transfer anyone who develops symptoms to UNMC’s biocontainment center for treatment.