Topline
More than a dozen asymptomatic passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will remain in isolation in Nebraska’s National Quarantine Unit for at least the next few days, where officials say they are in “good shape” and called the facility “more like a hotel than patient care space.” (See live hantavirus cruise updates here).
Key Facts
Eighteen people ranging in age from late 20s to early 80s were flown via State Department plane from the Canary Islands to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, home to the country’s only federally funded quarantine facility, Sunday night.
One of those patients, who has been described as “mildly positive” is in the facility’s biocontainment unit and two others, one who is showing mild symptoms, have since been transferred to Atlanta for care and monitoring at Emory University.
The 15 others are in “good spirits” in the National Quarantine Unit, the facility’s medical director Michael Wadman said Monday, and will undergo health assessments for the next several days before being assigned individual monitoring plans they’ll need to follow for several weeks.
Those plans will determine if patients can isolate at home or if they need to stay at the Nebraska facility for the entirety of the 42-day hantavirus incubation period, Dr. Brendan Jackson of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said, which will depend on each person’s living situation, health status and access to high-level medical care.
Jackson said passengers are welcome to stay in the quarantine unit for their isolation, if they wish.
Wadman said there is no plan for how frequently asymptomatic passengers will be tested for the virus and cautioned that even those who do have symptoms could easily test negative for the virus because early symptoms are the same as those of many other illnesses, including a mild cold.
Dr. Angela Hewlett, Medical Director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, told reporters the quarantine unit is “more like a hotel” than a hospital, explaining, “We don’t have the typical things that you’d see in a hospital room. It’s a much more comfortable environment actually, with some things to help keep people comfortable, like exercise equipment.”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said the patients will receive “world class care” at the center: “It’s a guarantee, you can take it to the bank.”
Crucial Quote
“There is no place in the country that they could be better cared for,” Dr. Jeffrey Gold, president of the University of Nebraska, said. “If we treat our patients the way we would treat our family members and loved ones, we’re gonna be OK, and that’s the rule.”
What Does It Mean To Test “mildly Positive” For Hantavirus?
Officials clarified an earlier description of an American patient who tested “mildly positive” for hantavirus, explaining the person was tested twice for the disease with a PCR molecular test and got one positive and one negative result. They are not experiencing symptoms, Hewlett reaffirmed Monday, and the patient will be tested further.
Why Are Some Hantavirus Cruise Passengers In Atlanta?
The two people who were transferred to Atlanta are a couple, officials said Monday, only one of whom has symptoms of the virus. Jackson said those people were taken to Atlanta as a way of “contingency planning” to keep beds open at the quarantine center, should they be needed. Captain Michael Garner, a regional administrator for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, said the decision made patients “load-balanced across the system.”
Key Background
The National Quarantine Unit has 20 single occupancy rooms that are each at least 300 square feet with en suite bathrooms, wifi and exercise equipment. The rooms are equipped with negative air pressure systems, which use exhaust fans to maintain lower air pressure than surrounding spaces and keep contaminants inside. The center in Nebraska also has a biocontainment unit, a highly specialized, 10-bed facility designed to treat patients with hazardous communicable diseases. Hewlett said the unit can provide care ranging from basic supportive care to invasive procedures and critical care. The biocontainment unit was first used in the fall of 2014 to receive U.S. citizens with Ebola virus who were medically evacuated from Africa and was used again in 2020 to care for Americans coming home from Wuhan, China and for those who were aboard the Diamond Princess Cruise ship in February 2020, which experienced one of the largest early COVID-19 outbreaks.
