“We have this under control, and we’re not worried about it,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the public on Monday.
WASHINGTON — The hantavirus outbreak is “under control,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday, just hours after U.S. citizens aboard the cruise ship at the center of it all returned stateside.
“We have this under control, and we’re not worried about it,” he told reporters during a press event in the Oval Office on Monday.
All 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday morning. They were among the approximately 150 passengers still aboard the vessel who were evacuated Sunday in Spain’s Canary Islands.
U.S. health officials confirmed late Sunday that one person had mild symptoms and another tested “mildly positive” for the Andes strain, which can be transmitted from person to person.
A British citizen, who lives in the U.S., also traveled with the Americans.
Once the group of passengers arrived in Nebraska, the Americans and British citizen were brought to a specialized quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Two of the 18 were later transferred to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with one of them experiencing symptoms.
All of the passengers will be tested and supervised before they are given plans to return home, Kennedy said, before sharing words to reassure the public that the situation was under control.
Three people died on the cruise ship after contracting hantavirus.
World health officials say the illness is not like COVID-19 and encourage people not to worry that this outbreak could lead to another pandemic.
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
Hantavirus is considered a relatively rare illness that is typically transmitted to humans by rodents, though other strains exist that allow the virus to spread from person to person. A couple of cases of the Andes strain, which spreads person-to-person, were identified in the cruise ship outbreak.
The infection typically starts with flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, muscle aches or headache. Death rates vary by the cause of the illness.
There is no specific treatment or cure for hantavirus, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
The Associated Press and CNN Newsource contributed to this report.