Americans evacuated from the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak are heading to a quarantine center in Nebraska where they will be monitored for symptoms.
After the MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife, Spain, on May 10, the 17 American passengers disembarked the ship and then boarded a repatriation flight back to the United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
Two of the American passengers – including one who tested positive for hantavirus and another with mild symptoms – are traveling in the plane's biocontainment units "out of an abundance of caution," HHS said.
Three people who traveled on the MV Hondius, a cruise ship run by Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions, have died from hantavirus. At least 10 people have been either confirmed or suspected to be infected, though that number could change after the final passengers are evacuated on May 11.
Hantavirus is typically transmitted to people through contact with rodents' urine, feces or saliva. The strain at the center of the outbreak has been confirmed as the Andes virus, which is believed to spread person-to-person, according to the World Health Organization.
