US public health agency concludes hantavirus response as outbreak eases
The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced the end of the monitoring period for the virus. The United States Centers for Disease
The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced the end of the monitoring period for the virus. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ended its response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship, nearly two months after the virus killed three people. The Wall Street Journal first reported the development on Wednesday, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) later confirmed its efforts had reached a “successful conclusion”. “No sustained transmission of Hantavirus occurred in the United States, and the monitoring period has concluded with no individuals remaining under observation,” Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said in a statement.
The outbreak involved the Andes virus, a rare hantavirus strain that typically circulates in Argentina and Chile. The cruise ship set off from Argentina on April 1. There were 18 US residents on board the MV Hondius in the Atlantic when the outbreak began. All US citizens potentially exposed to hantavirus while on board finished their 42-day monitoring period on Sunday. The residents have since returned to their home states after completing monitoring at the Quarantine Unit, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. No hantavirus cases were reported in the US. The CDC has repeatedly said the risk to the US public from the virus remains extremely low.
A joint response by the CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) collaborated with foreign governments, monitoring services and the healthcare system to address the outbreak, according to a statement by the HHS. “The successful conclusion of this response demonstrates the strength of a coordinated response to infectious disease threats that occur outside of our borders,” CDC acting director, Jay Bhattacharya, said in the statement. Hantavirus spreads primarily through rodents, infecting people through contact with rats, mice or their urine, droppings and saliva. The virus can become airborne during the cleaning of infested areas. The Andes virus is the only known hantavirus that can spread through close, prolonged human-to-human contact.
CDC scientists recently returned from Argentina, where they worked alongside public health officials there to investigate the outbreak, according to Brendan Jackson, acting director of the CDC’s Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. Jackson told reporters on a call that the scientists had trapped and tested rodents in areas connected to the cruise ship’s route, to trace the outbreak’s origins. Preliminary results from the rodent samples all came back negative, Jackson said, adding that the likely source of exposure remains under investigation.
The BriefWire