The CDC confirmed May 14 there are no hantavirus cases in the United States, even as the number of Americans being monitored has grown. A leading infectious disease expert is also pushing back on how the outbreak is being characterized.
Here are four updates:
1. 41 people under monitoring, no confirmed U.S. cases.
The CDC reported 41 people in the United States are being monitored for the Andes hantavirus but there are no confirmed cases. The 41 include passengers recently repatriated from the MV Hondius now quarantining at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Emory University’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, passengers who left the ship and returned home before the outbreak was identified, and people who may have been exposed on flights where a symptomatic case was present.
David Fitter, MD, CDC’s incident manager for the hantavirus response, said most people under monitoring are considered high-risk exposures and are advised to stay home, avoid travel and limit contact with others during the 42-day monitoring period.
2. UNMC biocontainment patient cleared; all 16 now in quarantine unit.
One passenger initially placed in the biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center has been medically cleared to move to the quarantine unit with the other 15 passengers. All 16 at UNMC are recommended to complete the full 42-day stay, officials said.
3. State monitoring expands to 11 departments, 23 people.
Eleven state health departments are now monitoring at least 23 people, none of whom have symptoms. North Dakota’s health department said it is monitoring five individuals who were exposed to a sick hantavirus cruise ship member abroad — none were on the cruise ship. The other states monitoring people are Texas, California, Georgia, Virginia, Arizona, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Kansas and Minnesota.
4. The superspreader dynamic is the missing piece — and the outbreak will likely fade in two weeks.
Michael Osterholm, PhD, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said public health officials and media are overlooking the most important factor in this outbreak: superspreaders.
“Every person in quarantine from this outbreak is being treated like they are a superspreader who brought it on the ship,” he said. “Our challenge is we won’t know who a superspreader is until after it happens.”
Dr. Osterholm pointed to a documented case in which a woman who contracted hantavirus in Argentina flew to Delaware and exposed 51 or 52 people — none of whom became infected — as evidence that transmission risk is highly variable and not uniform across all exposed individuals.
He also flagged HVAC systems aboard cold-weather expedition ships, which recirculate large amounts of interior air, noting that this could explain cases among passengers who were not in close physical contact with known cases.
On the 42-day window, Dr. Osterholm noted the median incubation is 18 days — meaning half of expected cases would emerge within the first 18 days after exposure. Given when the index patient boarded the ship, he said additional cases from ship exposure are unlikely to be numerous.
“I think we will see this fade away over 10 to 14 days,” he said, while acknowledging a superspreader could still change that picture.
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