JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H. – Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – May 8, 2026 – Hantavirus
A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet the American passengers there, an agency official confirmed to NBC News. And the State Department is arranging a repatriation flight back to the U.S. for them, a department spokesperson said Friday.
The 17 passengers will be received at the National Quarantine Unit, a secured facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, said Dr. Michael Wadman, the unit’s medical director.
There, teams will assess them and determine any necessary quarantine measures, he told reporters Friday. They will also be monitored daily.
All of the people being transported to Nebraska are in good health and are asymptomatic, but should anyone be diagnosed with the virus, they would would be moved to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, said Dr. Angela Hewlett, the medical director of that unit.
The Biocontainment Unit treats patients with hazardous communicable diseases in sterile environments that maximize safety and containment. It features an isolation unit, a HEPA filtration system and specialized sterilization “autoclaves” with double doors to decontaminate waste and linens.” (1)
“Spanish officials sought to reassure those with concerns about the evacuation of the MV Hondius in the Canary Islands.
Spanish officials said Friday that once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them. Passengers will be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, officials said, adding that the parts of the airport they travel through will also be cordoned off.
Officials sought to reassure the public in the Canary Islands about possible exposure to the virus among the general population.
Spain has requested medically equipped aircraft in case passengers report symptoms, Barcones said, in order to avoid any contact with the general population, but it wasn’t known if those would be available.” (2)
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it deployed a team earlier Friday to the Canary Islands, where the M/V Hondius is expected to dock in the coming days.
“The team will conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger and provide recommendations for the level of monitoring required,” the CDC said in a statement.
The American passengers will be evacuated on a U.S. government medical repatriation flight to Nebraska and transported to a quarantine center at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, the CDC said.
Another CDC team will deploy to Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska, to “support public health assessment of returning passengers,” the agency said.” (3)
“New Jersey health officials said Friday they are monitoring two residents who may have been infected with hantavirus after being on a plane with someone who was a passenger on the Dutch cruise ship now experiencing a deadly outbreak.
The state Department of Health said the risk to the general public remains low and neither of the New Jersey residents has reported any symptoms. The two were not passengers on the ship.
No hantavirus cases have been confirmed in New Jersey, and there is no history of cases in the Garden State, health officials said.
The state health department said public health agencies in several other states are conducting similar monitoring. It said it would continue to coordinate with local public health offices — the entities frequently responsible for tracking disease outbreaks — and federal partners.” (4)
“In the days since the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, concern has taken hold among at least some of its Spanish passengers — but not so much because they fear contracting the illness. Rather, they are afraid of how they will be received back on land.”
““You go onto social media — they want to dynamite the boat. They want to sink the boat,” a Spanish man said.
He says he worries about being stigmatized as a viral vector to be avoided — or worse. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of these concerns, and another Spanish woman insisted on anonymity for the same reason.” (5)
1.17 American passengers aboard hantavirus-hit cruise ship will quarantine in Nebraska, By Erika Edwards, Aria Bendix, Patrick Smith and Alicia Victoria Lozano, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flight-attendant-tests-negative-hantavirus-new-case-suspected-remote-i-rcna344191
2.Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked, https://abc7.com/post/hantavirus-updates-spain-readies-evacuations-cruise-ship-cdc-classifies-outbreak-level-3-emergency-response/19063171/
3.Hantavirus live updates: CDC team will bring American cruise ship passengers back to quarantine unit, https://abc11.com/live-updates/hantavirus-infection-outbreak-cruise-ship-symptoms-map/19064881/
4.Health officials monitoring two NJ residents possibly exposed to hantavirus, By Lilo H. Stainton, https://newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/nj-residents-exposed-hantavirus/
5.On the cruise ship hit by hantavirus, some fear what awaits them at home, By DAVID BILLER and SUMAN NAISHADHAM, https://apnews.com/article/hantavirus-cruise-spain-f98dd0e269c2144267623ec278d00e51
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai