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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially ended its Hantavirus response Wednesday, more than a month after the first Americans were evacuated following an outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the North Atlantic.
The wind-down comes after the final 42-day quarantine period for the Americans who were exposed to the virus ended earlier this week.
More than a dozen Americans were housed at a quarantine facility in Nebraska. While officials initially said the passengers would be monitored for 21 days, the Trump administration instead required them to stay unless their home states agreed to round-the-clock monitoring to ensure compliance with quarantine requirements.
Some passengers were able to leave the facility earlier this month, but the rest stayed, including one woman who was being held against her will after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ignored the recommendation of a CDC medical review.
No individuals in the United States remain under public health monitoring, and there were no additional cases of the rare Andes strain of the Hantavirus.
“Protecting the health and safety of the American people is our highest responsibility,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “HHS moved swiftly to identify potential exposures, support state and local health officials, and prepare our healthcare system to respond. As a result, no sustained transmission of Hantavirus occurred in the United States, and the monitoring period has concluded with no individuals remaining under observation.”
Last month, the CDC transported back to the U.S. 18 Americans who were passengers on the MV Hondius ship that became the center of a Hantavirus outbreak in April. The passengers were quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Neb.
However, an additional 19 Americans had disembarked the ship earlier, before officials knew of the Hantavirus outbreak. They were not forced into a quarantine facility and instead were monitored at home.
The rare Hantavirus outbreak killed three people. More than 140 passengers and crew members were on board the ship when it left Argentina on April 1.
From the start, health officials emphasized that the risk to the public was low. Hantavirus rarely spreads among people, and it only spreads with close contact over a period of time rather than among casual interactions.
But the Andes virus has a 40 percent case fatality rate and a known incubation period of up to 42 days during which anyone exposed can become symptomatic and transmit it to others — a point that top health officials made to justify an extended quarantine despite their previous criticisms of federal overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, the HHS touted its collaboration with other agencies as well as foreign governments to conduct contact tracing, traveler communications, repatriation planning, medical monitoring and more.
“The successful conclusion of this response demonstrates the strength of a coordinated response to infectious disease threats that occur outside of our borders,” acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.
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