The threat posed by the ‘deadly hantavirus outbreak’ is “stable for now,” according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
His update comes just as people were starting to wonder what had happened to the rat virus following weeks of media propaganda.
The rodent-borne disease was first detected in April aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius.
Since the outbreak emerged, authorities have confirmed 12 hantavirus infections and three deaths linked to the incident, including a Dutch couple and a German woman.
Several American passengers from the vessel were placed in quarantine facilities in the southern United States, where they continue to be monitored. Others who disembarked before the outbreak became public are being observed from their homes.
“All passengers and crew remain in quarantine and under close monitoring to ensure they receive care if needed,” Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Sunday. “The situation is stable for now. We continue to remain vigilant and in close contact with all relevant governments.”
The Independent reports: The strain of virus that spread on the ship is the Andes virus, the only known hantavirus strain to pass between humans.
After all Americans were returned to the U.S., Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said that he had signed a declaration to “support the development and deployment of medical countermeasures related to Andes virus.”
“This action helps remove barriers to research and response efforts while we continue monitoring the recent outbreak linked to the South Atlantic cruise ship,” he wrote in his own X post.
In the meantime, risk to the general public remains low, Dr. David Fitter, the incident manager for response to the virus at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing last week.
“There are no hantavirus cases among the returned to U.S. passengers,” he said.
Fitter told reporters that the majority of the 18 quarantined passengers would stay at the University of Nebraska through the end of the month. Two others are staying at Emory Hospital in Georgia.
While some passengers say they’re trying to make the best of the cards they’ve been dealt in quarantine, others have voiced their frustration at not being allowed to leave.
“They are requiring us to remain in a locked facility and threatening us,” Angela Perryman, 47, told The New York Times, “and denying us the right to home quarantine.”
Perryman received a federal order requiring her to stay in Nebraska, the paper reported. She lives in Ecuador but has a home in Florida, according to NPR.
It’s not yet clear whether the passengers will be allowed to leave the center before the end of the full 42-day quarantine period. But it may take up to 42 days for hantavirus symptoms to appear after exposure, the CDC notes.
Passengers’ cases will be evaluated individually, Dr. Michael Wadman, the medical director of Nebraska’s national quarantine unit, told The Associated Press.