At least two Americans say they received quarantine orders to stay in a Nebraska biocontainment unit following their exposure to hantavirus aboard a Dutch cruise ship. The orders, sent early this week and signed by Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, the head of both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health, were issued after the passengers pushed to leave and quarantine at home after receiving negative hantavirus tests.
The passengers have been told they need to stay in Nebraska until May 31, despite earlier messaging suggesting they could finish the 42-day incubation period at home. The incubation period is the time from exposure to first appearance of symptoms.
Some of the passengers said they had been in contact with state health departments to draw up details of their home quarantine. A total of 18 Americans are being monitored at the Nebraska facility, the CDC said yesterday.
“No one here is asking to be released from quarantine,” one anonymous passenger told CNN. “We are asking for the less restrictive alternative of a quarantine at home. That is what everyone was planning until this bombshell on Sunday [May 17].”
No evidence of asymptomatic transmission
Yesterday the CDC confirmed that no Americans associated with the cruise have tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only hantavirus strain known to involve person-to-person transmission.
A report from the UK Health Security Agency yesterday showed no evidence of asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission in a systematic evidence summary based on studies conducted on Andes virus. The mean incubation period seen in these studies was 21 to 27 days.
Currently the Andes strain outbreak related to the MV Hondius stands at 11 cases, including 3 deaths.