Two more people who were passengers aboard a cruise ship that was the site of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have returned to their home states following about five weeks of monitoring at the University of Nebraska Medical Center-based National Quarantine Unit, according to a Thursday update.
UNMC said that six passengers now remain at the quarantine unit of the 18 who arrived in Omaha on May 11, diverted from the affected MV Hondius ship.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested that passengers remain at the NQU through May 31.
However, symptoms of hantavirus can take up to 42 days to appear, a UNMC statement said, so all passengers were “strongly encouraged” to complete that longer period and stay through June 21.
Those who left earlier did not travel commercially, according to the statement, which said that appropriate biocontainment measures were in place during their transport. Travel was coordinated through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and respective local health departments.
The passengers were to continue monitoring under the jurisdiction of their local public health departments. UNMC said the federal CDC has been coordinating with impacted states on requirements for the passengers to self-monitor in their homes.
The World Health Organization reported in late May that a total of 11 confirmed cases, including three deaths, had been linked to the Andes hantavirus strain outbreak on the cruise ship.
National news outlets earlier interviewed passengers returning to their home states. Some chafed at being forced to quarantine states away from loved ones and work after spending more than a month aboard a Dutch cruise line that stopped in parts of South America and Antarctica.
UNMC/Nebraska Medicine is one of 13 Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response National Special Pathogen System.