US passengers from hantavirus-hit ship quarantined in Nebraska and Georgia

US passengers from hantavirus-hit ship quarantined in Nebraska and Georgia6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAna FaguyUS health officials: Hantavirus risk to Americans 'very, very low'Eighteen Americans evacuated from a cruise ship after possible exposure to hantavirus are being closely monitored by health officials, as authorities maintain the risk to the public remains "very, very low".Officials say one passenger aboard the Dutch vessel MV Hondius has tested positive for the Andes virus - a rare type of hantavirus - while another is showing mild symptoms.More than 90 passengers of the cruise ship, currently docked in Spain's Canary Islands, are being repatriated. The positive result marks the first confirmed case involving an American passenger. Two people are being monitored in Atlanta, while 16 others are in Nebraska at the nation's only national quarantine unit."No-one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door onto the streets of Omaha," Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen said at a press conference alongside health officials on Monday morning.In an effort to preserve space at the facility in Nebraska, some passengers were flown to Atlanta, including the passenger who displayed mild symptoms, Brendan Jackson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a press conference on Monday morning.The two individuals taken to Georgia include one who is symptomatic and that person's partner. "Let me be crystal clear: the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low," said Admiral Brian Christine of the US Health and Human Services department (HHS). "The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic."Experts say most strains of hantavirus, a group of viruses carried by rodents, do not pass from person to person, but the Andes strain identified in a number of people...