US health agency wraps up hantavirus response as outbreak continues | Health Issues

The US Department of Health has announced the end of the testing period for the virus.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ended its response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship, nearly two months after the virus killed three people.

The Wall Street Journal reported the development on Wednesday, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) later confirmed that its efforts had reached a “successful conclusion”.

“There is no ongoing outbreak of Hantavirus in the United States, and the surveillance period has ended without the public being monitored,” Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said in a statement.

The outbreak also involved the Andes virus, a rare type of hantavirus endemic to Argentina and Chile. The ship left Argentina on April 1.

There were 18 US citizens aboard the MV Hondius in the Atlantic when the outbreak began.

All US citizens who may have been exposed to hantavirus when they boarded completed their 42-day screening period on Sunday.

The people will return home after being monitored by the National Quarantine Unit, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

No cases of hantavirus have been reported in the US. The CDC has repeatedly said that the risk to the US population from the virus remains very low.

A joint response by the CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has coordinated with foreign governments, intelligence agencies and medical systems to address the crisis, according to the HHS statement.

“The final results of this response demonstrate the power of a coordinated response to infectious disease threats that occur outside our borders,” CDC director Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.

Hantavirus is spread mainly through rodents, infecting humans through contact with rodents, mice or their urine, droppings and saliva. The virus can become airborne during cleaning of infected areas.

The Andes virus is the only virus known to be transmitted through prolonged human-to-human contact.

CDC scientists recently returned from Argentina, where they worked with health officials there to investigate the outbreak, according to Brendan Jackson, director of the CDC’s Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology.

Jackson told reporters in a phone call that scientists trapped and tested rats in areas connected to the ship, to determine where the outbreak began.

The initial results from the rat samples all came back negative, Jackson said, adding that possible side effects are being investigated.