Seventeen Americans who are currently on board the Dutch cruise ship enduring a hantavirus outbreak will make their way back to the United States on a repatriation flight arranged by the Department of State.
“We’re working closely with the CDC, with HHS, to make sure that all of our Americans are safe and come home safely and soundly,” Mora Namdar, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, told Scripps News.
After arriving in the United States, the Americans are expected to be taken to the National Quarantine Unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, according to health officials.
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The ship is expected to dock Sunday morning at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
“The situation on board m/v Hondius remains calm, and guests and crew continue to follow procedures, now under the guidance of the medical team,” according to a written statement provided by Oceanwide Expeditions.
At least five state health departments have already been in touch with and are monitoring a group of passengers who returned to the United States from the same ship in late April. So far, authorities have said no one is experiencing symptoms of the rare but deadly Andes strain of the hantavirus.
“I’m not worried about the passengers coming back. I expect that they will be quarantined until we know for sure that they’re not affected and likely to spread it. I’m worried about the people who may have been exposed to others along the way,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University.
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Health officials confirmed Friday that one Dutch flight attendant who had been ill tested negative for the hantavirus despite having come in brief contact with one of the infected passengers.
Nuzzo spoke during a Wednesday media briefing in which health leaders discussed a new report from Trust for America’s Health examining the United States’ preparedness for public health emergencies.
The report placed only 20 states in the highest-performance tier for readiness and said there is a “wide variation” in preparedness among states amid budget cuts and strain on the federal public health system.
“I want to make sure that healthcare workers are aware of the threat, (that) healthcare workers know what to do, that they have the right personal protective equipment, that they have the right index of suspicion – the right clinical suspicion – that someone might have been exposed,” she said of health workers who may deal with the hantavirus.
Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of TFAH, said this is a critical moment to focus on the United States’ public health preparedness, especially given measles outbreaks and a severe flu season in recent months.
“The federal public health system remains under strain, and the U.S. is preparing to host large-scale events and mass gatherings such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches in the weeks ahead, events that will bring large crowds and international travel and will underscore the importance of strong, coordinated preparedness systems,” she said.
