Imagine everyone watching you (from a safe distance) as you get off your plane with the plague.
In a special statement on Sunday evening, the Center for Disease Control said it was "repatriating" 17 U.S. citizens that were onboard the cursed ship MV Hondius.
All 17 are currently en route via State Dept airlift to the United States, with two of the passengers travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution. One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.
As of now, the airlift will transport passengers to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska before taking the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at its final destination.
Here is video of the passengers arriving for a 42-day quarantine at the hospital:
If you haven't been on the internet for the last two weeks, the Hondius became the breeding ground for a deadly virus called the hantavirus. Before embarking on the cruise, a pair of Dutch birdwatchers - Leo and Mirjam Schilperoord - visited a landfill in Argentina to catch a glimpse of a rare bird that often visits such garbage dumps. There, 70-year-old Leo contracted hantavirus, likely from exposure to mice urine and feces.
Once onboard the ship, he began to feel sick. He died several days later on April 11. When 69-year-old Mirjam showed symptoms, she was taken off the ship on April 24 with her husband's body. She tried to get a plane flight home to the Netherlands from South Africa, but the pilots refused to have her onboard. She then died in Johannesburg.
Others then became infected, including the ship's doctor, a 56-year-old British man. A German woman in her 60s then died on May 2.
Several others have tested positive or shown early symptoms of hantavirus, which can take one to eight weeks to incubate in the body. 👇
Two Americans, one confirmed to have hantavirus and the other experiencing early symptoms.
A Dutch crew member of the ship who was evacuated to the Netherlands and is stable in isolation.
A Swiss male who remains hospitalized in Zurich.
A French woman (one of five evacuated French passengers) who is hospitalized in Paris and whose condition has worsened as of May 11.
An adult male, possibly British, who remains in a South Africa ICU unit in Johannesburg.
The ship's doctor has recovered significantly since he was medically evacuated to the Netherlands on May 6.
Notably, Gene Hackman's wife died last year from hantavirus in their home in Santa Fe.
That strain of hantavirus, however, does not pass between humans. The Andes strain that spread onboard the Hondius is the only strain with that capability. While it kills several dozen people annually, this is the first time it hit a concentrated group of mostly older (therefore potentially more immune deficient) international travelers.
Hantavirus does not spread easily (or far) in the air like Covid or other respiratory diseases. It requires close contact with bodily fluids, so just avoid hugging friends and family that went on a cruise in the southern Atlantic or flew through Johannesburg airport the last week or two!
Nebraska's governor confirmed Monday morning that the passengers will not be allowed to leave quarantine:
Hopefully this is the last time I hear about hantavirus for a long time!
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