A pair of New Jersey residents may have been exposed to hantavirus after possibly coming into contact with passengers of the Dutch cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak.
The two Garden State residents were not passengers on the ship, but may have come into contact with the cruise passengers while travelling abroad, according to New Jersey health officials.
Those individuals have not exhibited symptoms, and it is unclear if they have contracted the virus.
Follow the latest updates on the hantavirus outbreak stemming from the MV Hondius cruise ship
Health officials said there is no apparent threat to the public, but that the situation was being closely monitored.
“At this time, the risk to the general public in New Jersey remains low,” the NJ Department of Health said in a statement.
Three people have died of hantavirus tied to the cruise ship, and several others are being monitored for infections.
Another 23 people who were on the deadly cruise have also returned to their homes across the world, though only one is known to have become sick so far.
Hantavirus symptoms generally show between four and 42 days, while people who are asymptomatic are generally not considered contagious.
The cruise ship departed from Argentina on March 20 and worked its way up the Atlantic Ocean as the outbreak spread onboard.
A group of passengers left the boat between April 22 and 26, prompting fears they could spread whatever strain the group contracted across the world.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared a “level 3” threat over the situation, though it has cautioned that the threat to the public remains minimal.
Level 3 threats are the lowest emergency level the CDC issues, and generally convenes a group of experts to monitor the situation and prepare a response if one is needed.
Here’s the latest on the deadly hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch cruise ship:
- Health officials think they’ve tracked down source of cruise ship hantavirus outbreak
- Unnerving photo shows suspected hantavirus patient evacuated from MV Hondius cruise — as 1 ex-passenger tests positive in Switzerland
- Hantavirus outbreak spreads to Europe after MV Hondius cruise passenger tests positive back home
- The ‘concerning’ truth about the hantavirus cruise outbreak — and how long passengers may actually need to isolate
Hantavirus can be extremely deadly – with fatality rates reaching 40% in some instances.
It manifests as a severe flu, with survivors describing the grueling disease as “torture.”
“The degree of illness and sickness that I went through was hell on earth,” said Lorne Warburton, who contracted the virus in 2023.
“It was torture to go through that,” he recently told the BBC.
