United States Passenger Tested Positive For Hantavirus

An American passenger from a hantavirus-hit Dutch cruise ship has tested positive for the virus, and another has mild symptoms, the US Department of Health and Human Services have announced.

All 17 American citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship are currently en route via an airlift to the United States, with the two travelling in the plane?s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution, the department wrote in a post on the social platform X.

The airlift will first take passengers to the



Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, before transferring the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at their final destination, it said.

?Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition,? the department said in the post. As of Saturday, there were eight suspected cases associated with the outbreak and three deaths, it said.