17 American Passengers from Hantavirus-Linked Cruise Ship Offered Quarantine at Nebraska Medical Center

Federal and state officials announced that 17 Americans evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship—linked to an Andes-virus outbreak that has killed three people—can be voluntarily monitored at Nebraska Medicine's National Quarantine Unit in Omaha. Currently asymptomatic, these passengers have the option to quarantine or return home. The cruise ship, carrying 140+ passengers and crew, is docking in Spain's Canary Islands. Nebraska's facility, the nation's only federally funded quarantine center for high-consequence infectious diseases, features 20 negative-pressure isolation rooms. Officials emphasized no public health risk, as Andes-virus primarily spreads through rodent contact; person-to-person transmission is rare. The facility previously treated Ebola and COVID-19 patients.