Two sufferers, each of whom had been on the virus-stricken the MV Hondius, had been rushed to a specialised biocontainment unit by officers in full hazmat gear
Two passengers who had been aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship have been rushed to hospital after they had been medically evacuated from the MV Hondius on Monday.
Dramatic footage captured the second hospital staffers met the virus-exposed sufferers whereas clad head-to-toe in hazmat gear and PPE. The footage captured US healthcare staff whisking them from an ambulance and into essential care at Emory College Hospital in Atlanta, with one affected person transported in a wheelchair.
The pair had simply accomplished a five-week voyage aboard the MV Hondius — the vessel on the centre of a lethal rat-borne virus outbreak that triggered a world incident after three passengers misplaced their lives on board.
Get the newest information from all over the world and extra Subscribe Invalid e mail
We use your sign-up to supply content material in methods you have consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This will likely embrace adverts from us and third events primarily based on our understanding. You’ll be able to unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
The Georgia hospital has since confirmed that each people arrived immediately from the MV Hondius following the lethal outbreak at sea. One affected person is symptomatic and receiving therapy in Emory’s biocontainment unit, whereas the opposite is asymptomatic and at the moment present process analysis and monitoring.
The 2 passengers had disembarked the virus-stricken cruise ship on the Canary Islands earlier than being transferred to Emory College’s Critical Communicable Ailments Unit in Atlanta. The Centres for Illness Management and Prevention notified the Georgia Division of Public Well being of the state of affairs on Monday (Might 11), stories the Mirror.
#HANTAVIRUS sufferers rushed into Atlanta hospital
Medics in FULL head-to-toe hazmat fits wheel them on stretcher from ambulance pic.twitter.com/UCcF5ihHPy
— Frontline Affairs (@BCB_CBA) Might 11, 2026
A spokesperson for the Division of Public Well being (DPH) acknowledged: “Federal well being care staff are taking each precaution wanted in every of those instances, and there’s no threat to the general public right now.” Early indicators of hantavirus an infection embrace fever, chills, myalgia (muscle aches), complications and gastrointestinal signs, which might deteriorate into acute respiratory misery syndrome, respiratory failure and shock. DPH officers confirmed the US case fatality fee sits at about 35 per cent.
Almost 40 strains of hantavirus exist throughout the globe, every inflicting distinct sicknesses, although the uncommon Andes pressure stays the one one identified to unfold between people. Transmission mostly happens by way of contact with rat faeces, saliva and urine. Nevertheless, officers have harassed that the symptomatic affected person on US soil is not any trigger for alarm.
Emory College epidemiologist Dr Jodie Visitor has revealed that fewer than 900 instances of hantavirus have ever been recorded in US historical past, with the medical knowledgeable dubbing the illness a “dead-end virus”.
The MV Hondius, photographed departing the Canary Islands in any case passengers had been evacuated Might 11 (Picture: Getty Pictures)
“Usually, we take into account the hantavirus a dead-end virus, that means one particular person will get it from a rodent, after which that’s the solely one that will get it,” Dr Visitor stated.
“This won’t change into a worldwide pandemic. The transmission doesn’t work successfully that means.”
Fellow well being professionals have echoed Dr Visitor’s reassurances in a bid to ease American issues over a possible second pandemic. College of Florida Well being Shands Hospital chief epidemiologist and infectious illness specialist Dr Nicole Iovine clarified that the style through which hantavirus spreads between people differs considerably from that of influenza or coronavirus. “These viruses have an effect on the higher airways, primarily, so talking and coughing can simply transmit it,” Dr Iovine stated. “The hantavirus and the Andes virus are likely to infect very deep within the lungs, so it’s not as simply transmitted by way of the air.”
In accordance with the World Well being Organisation, there may be at the moment no vaccine accessible for hantavirus an infection.
Leave a Reply