L058-EEUU EVACUADOS POR HANTAVIRUS

STORY: An aircraft carrying 17 Americans repatriated from a luxury cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak landed on early Monday (May 11) morning at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, where passengers were met by emergency personnel and law enforcement.

Local media showed police‑led convoys driving towards the airfield before the aircraft, a Boeing 747, touched down at around 02:38 a.m. local time (0728 GMT). Emergency responders - some wearing protective suits - greeted passengers on the tarmac as they were screened and escorted onto waiting mini buses.

Health officials said the passengers are being transferred to medical facilities for monitoring following possible exposure aboard the MV Hondius, which has been anchored near Spain’s Canary Islands.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said one of the repatriated Americans has tested mildly positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus while a second passenger has mild symptoms but has not yet been confirmed as having the virus. Both symptomatic individuals were transported aboard the aircraft in biocontainment units, HHS said, adding that the overall risk of transmission is low.

Nebraska Medicine said its Biocontainment Unit has been activated in advance of the passengers’ arrival, with one asymptomatic individual who tested positive expected to be transferred there, while others will undergo assessment and monitoring at the National Quarantine Unit. On arrival at the facilities, each individual will receive a clinical evaluation and care based on their condition, health officials said.

Hantaviruses are typically spread by rodents, though rare person‑to‑person transmission has been documented with the Andes strain. The World Health Organization said eight people who are no longer aboard the Hondius have fallen ill, six of whom were confirmed to have contracted the virus, with a Dutch couple and a German national among the dead.