Spain Hantavirus Ship

Oceanwide Expeditions says it expects to know by the end of the week if the MV Hondius cruise ship will keep to its schedule after a hantavirus outbreak. Three passengers died, and more than 120 people were evacuated in Spain. The ship is heading to Rotterdam for disinfection. The hantavirus is usually spread by rodent droppings and not easily transmitted between people. Experts say normal disinfectants should suffice to kill the virus. Oceanwide Expeditions reports no indication of rodents on board and operates under strict hygiene protocols. Future passengers are likely safe, according to experts.

An oncologist traveling on the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak has been cleared to leave a special biocontainment unit in Nebraska, where he was the lone American placed in isolation after he helped care for fellow passengers who became sick on board. Dr. Stephen Kornfeld of Bend, Oregon, was among more than 120 passengers and crew evacuated from the ship and flown to different countries to enter quarantine. Kornfeld was brought to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha with 15 other Americans, but he was the only one taken to an isolated biocontainment unit after a nasal swab he took on the ship produced inconclusive results about whether he had the virus.