UNMC Sixteen Americans who were on a cruise ship associated with a hantavirus outbreak have been repatriated to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.
They arrived in Omaha early Monday on a U.S. Department of State plane from the Canary Islands. Fifteen were “resting now” on Monday morning in the National Quarantine Unit at the Davis Global Center, reported Michael Wadman, MD, Muelleman Chair of Emergency Medicine at UNMC, the unit’s medical director. The sixteenth, who previously tested positive for Andes Hantavirus, was transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit for monitoring. This individual was “doing well and not showing any symptoms at this time,” as of Monday morning, reported Angela Hewlett, MD, Orr Chair in Health Security and the NBU’s medical director.
Two other individuals, one showing symptoms, were transported to Emory University in Atlanta and its biocontainment unit.
Federal, state, university, UNMC and Nebraska Medicine experts updated the public Monday morning at a press conference at the medical center. CNN, NBC News, CBS News, FOX News, ABC News and KETV News attended, among other outlets.
The U.S. federal government, as it had during infectious diseases outbreaks of Ebola and COVID-19, again turned to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine and its world-class experts and facilities.
“We are honored to have this responsibility to repatriate these American citizens. There is no place in the country where they would be better cared for, more safely and more effectively,” said University of Nebraska System President Jeffrey P. Gold, MD.
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