11 hantavirus cases now tied to cruise ship, including 3 dead

0:00 There are now 11 confirmed cases from the haunt virus

0:03 outbreak on that cruise ship which has killed three people now.

0:06 And the World Health Organization says all the infected

0:09 are either passengers or crew from the MV Hondas.

0:12 In the meantime, at least 29 Americans who are

0:14 on the ship are under monitoring across multiple US states.

0:18 16 of them are in a special facility in Nebraska, including Jake Rosearin.

0:23 He spoke to NBC today about his life under quarantine.

0:29 I I do not have the virus.

0:31 I'm well.

0:31 I have no symptoms.

0:32 I feel good and I'm in good spirits right now.

0:35 Yesterday, I kind of was just taking the time to speak

0:38 to friends and family and let them know that I was okay.

0:41 Yes, you can order out.

0:42 However, it might not be able to be delivered right away,

0:45 but you you can uh get things delivered,

0:47 care packages, and that's that's nice that we have really,

0:50 you know, access to whatever we need.

0:52 Two other US passengers went to a bioontainment unit at Emory

0:56 University in Atlanta and that's where our Jacqueline Howard is standing by.

1:00 Jacqueline, you just got an update uh on the crew's passengers there.

1:07 That's right, Briana.

1:08 The Department of Health and Human Services just

1:10 posted on X just over an hour ago and said that one of the passengers here

1:17 at Emory University Hospital who was showing mild symptoms,

1:20 they have tested negative for the Andes variant of HA virus.

1:25 Now, this is an update where they said this test was done

1:30 last night and this is one of the two passengers here in Atlanta.

1:34 The other passenger is a close contact of that first

1:38 passenger and the other passenger has remained asymptomatic.

1:41 But still, Briana, as these passengers are being evaluated and monitored,

1:46 testing is going to play a big part in this.

1:49 And watching for symptoms is going to play a big part in this.

1:53 Here's what infectious disease physician Dr.

1:56 Anish Meta said about receiving these two patients here in Atlanta.

1:59 He spoke in a news briefing yesterday.

2:02 Have a listen.

2:04 the passengers that um HHS asked us to receive

2:08 here at Emory University in our search communicable diseases unit.

2:11 One was symptomatic um when uh assessed uh when leaving the Canary Islands.

2:17 The other one was a close contact of that individual who was not symptomatic.

2:22 The care that these two individuals receive is the same care

2:25 that we deliver to every patient at every university hospital every single day.

2:29 And that is a patient and family centered model of care.

2:36 and Briana, as those two passengers here in Atlanta continue to be monitored,

2:41 here's a diagram of what the special

2:44 isolation facility looks like here at Emery.

2:47 You'll see on this diagram, area one is where doctors enter the space,

2:52 they put on their protective gear.

2:54 Area 2 is an example of what a patient room looks like.

2:58 And again, these two passengers here at Emery are two

3:01 of 18 total that are being monitored here in the United States.

3:05 The 16 others are in Nebraska.

3:07 And in the post on X, the Department of Health and Human Services also said

3:12 that the 16 passengers who arrived at uh in Nebraska,

3:18 they are actually remaining asymptomatic.

3:21 So that's another update again from the Department of Health and Human Services.

3:25 But Briana, you know, this virus has a long incubation period.

3:29 So these passengers are going to continue to be monitored for about 42 days.

3:34 And we also know that when you're in a situation like

3:38 this, it's likely that more cases may emerge in the days to come.

3:43 So that's also something that health officials are watching closely.

3:46 Briana.

3:46 Yeah.

3:46 And they may be expecting that.

3:48 Jacqueline Howard live for us in Atlanta.

3:51 Thank you.

3:51 The World Health Organization now says there are 11

3:54 cases of Hunter virus linked to the cruise ship Handias.

3:58 A French woman who became sick after being evacuated

4:01 is in intensive care in stable condition, we're told.

4:05 Here in the US, 16 passengers are quarantined in Nebraska.

4:09 One is in the bioontainment unit after testing positive.

4:14 None are displaying symptoms.

4:16 Two other people, a couple, are in a bioontainment unit in Atlanta.

4:20 At least one is showing symptoms.

4:22 Today, we're hearing from some of the passengers

4:25 as they begin weeks of quarantine.

4:27 They describe the terrifying moment on the ship

4:30 when they were first alerted to the virus.

4:33 I think it was a really scary moment for me personally.

4:37 I think like anyone,

4:38 when you hear a virus that you may not know about, you Google it.

4:42 And you know probably when you Google this virus,

4:45 it's some very scary statistics.

4:47 However, it is a virus that you we do know about and it took me

4:52 some time over those coming days to do more research and learn more about it.

4:57 But it was a scary time and I had a lot of up and down emotions,

5:02 but I spent most of my time in my cabin.

5:05 And joining us now, our chief medical correspondent, Dr.

5:08 Sanjay Gupta.

5:09 Sanjay, what do the weeks ahead look like for those who are starting quarantine?

5:14 Well, you know, it it's uh 6 weeks, so 42 days, you know,

5:18 that's sort of the uh in in combination with the time on the ship,

5:21 the incubation period for this virus.

5:23 Uh the time period from when someone might have

5:25 been exposed to the time when they might develop symptoms.

5:28 I think these first 72 hours are going to be the most critical.

5:31 Uh this is sort of an assessment period for them.

5:33 uh doing a medical exams, things like that, but also getting a sense of uh

5:38 did they have contact with somebody who has the virus?

5:41 Did they have contact with someone who was sick?

5:44 Obviously, seeing if they develop symptoms.

5:45 I think one of the big questions is going to be uh do people need to stay

5:50 in the in the uh facilities there or could

5:53 they potentially go home and be monitored there?

5:56 Um, we're still sort of trying to nail down where

5:59 I I think the recommendation is they stay in the facilities,

6:02 but they may allow some of these folks to go home as well.

6:05 Um, and then see sort of what happens.

6:07 It is likely, we're hearing from just about everybody that there

6:11 may be more people who subsequently test positive after developing symptoms.

6:15 So, we'll see what happens.

6:17 These are incredible facilities, Wolf.

6:18 As you know, I'm on the faculty at Emory.

6:21 Um, Ebola patients were brought back here several years ago.

6:24 They have a a a uh a mechanism to try and prevent other people obviously

6:29 in the facility from getting sick but also

6:32 provide care should any of these passengers/patients get sick.

6:35 Wolf uh officials have continued to say Sanjay that the risk overall is

6:40 low that the spread of the virus is usually limited to close contacts.

6:45 Here's what the assistant secretary of health uh

6:48 for health and human services had to say.

6:53 Let me be clear.

6:55 Let me be crystal clear.

6:56 The risk of Hanto virus to the general public remains very very low.

7:01 The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily

7:05 and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic.

7:10 Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start.

7:16 Sanjay, do you agree?

7:17 Well, you know, I think a lot of this it comes down to a a study

7:23 that was done of a what what is known as a super spreader event back in 2018.

7:27 There's not a lot of data on this, right?

7:30 So, you know, thousands of cases maybe around the world,

7:32 hundreds of cases of human to human transmission,

7:34 not a lot of data, but let me show you this image and uh you know,

7:38 we we can put it up on the screen

7:40 and basically tell you the story of a guy number one

7:42 in the middle of the screen there who was a guy

7:45 who walked into a birthday party and was there for 90 minutes.

7:48 He was sick when he walked into the party.

7:50 And you see the other red uh num numbers around the tables there.

7:54 Five people who got sick as well became infected as a result of this event.

7:59 Four of those people are are in close proximity as was just said,

8:03 you know, within 4t or so.

8:05 But there was another guy who was across

8:07 the room and that was not in close proximity.

8:09 And the only time they had any proximity was when one

8:12 was leaving the restroom and one was going to the restroom.

8:15 the restrooms in the bottom left corner.

8:17 So, is that considered close contact?

8:19 Probably not.

8:20 I think that the question becomes if you're infectious,

8:23 if you're sick, uh during that time, you could potentially spread it to people

8:28 who are even further away for shorter duration.

8:30 Wolf, Dr.

8:31 Sanjay Gupta, thanks as usual.

8:33 Appreciate it very very much.

8:35 Joining us now is Bryce Warner.

8:36 He's a research scientist at the vaccine and infectious disease

8:39 organization at the University of Saskatchewan

8:42 and has extensively researched antiviruses.

8:44 Bryce, thank you so much for being with us.

8:47 Uh, the Andes strain is rare.

8:49 By some estimates, there's only like 3,000 documented cases of it.

8:53 Perhaps the most well-known outbreak was back

8:55 in 2018 at the small village in southern Argentina.

9:01 What did scientists learn there?

9:04 Yeah.

9:04 So, I mean that you're right,

9:06 that was the largest outbreak that had been documented and and that was really,

9:10 you know, by far the largest persontoperson spread that we've seen.

9:13 it was, you know, over 30 cases um and you know,

9:17 a high case fatality rate and that was spread through,

9:21 you know, a person attending a birthday party.

9:22 And so that was really the first sort of transmission to humans that we

9:26 would we've seen that we think of in in the the typical context.

9:29 Most of the previous cases of human to human

9:31 transmission had been sort of in the hospital setting.

9:34 And so this was really evidence showing that you know

9:36 this virus can transmit human to human although it is rare.

9:40 So when we hear about humanto human transmissibility requiring

9:44 close and prolonged contact perhaps not a coincidence that not

9:49 far from where this boat docked there had been

9:52 this outbreak and then you have people on board an enclosed

9:56 space and which they're constantly interacting with each other

9:59 and the folks that prepare the food are interacting

10:01 and and so I guess my question is h how

10:03 do we know what that kind of close proximate contact means?

10:10 outside of a cruise ship.

10:14 Yeah.

10:14 And so I mean, you know, before this happened, I mean,

10:16 we we would normally have have thought of it as like in the context

10:20 of that previous outbreak or really in the context

10:22 of someone caring for someone who is sick,

10:24 like a healthcare worker or a loved one taking

10:26 care of their family member or something like that.

10:28 This cruise ship is, you know,

10:30 a unique situation obviously and so where we're seeing,

10:33 you know, a married couple in the same cabin,

10:36 but then people, you know, interacting in close quarters on the ship,

10:39 probably in the dining hall and and things like that.

10:41 And so, you know, this is just another, you know,

10:44 mechanism that that adds to our understanding of how the virus can transmit.

10:48 And just so that we're clear, the verality and and transmissibility of it, um,

10:54 how exactly is it that it jumps from person to person in in what window of time?

11:02 Yeah.

11:02 And so the, you know, the evidence there, you know,

11:06 really indicates that the the period of transmissibility is is maybe a day

11:11 or two before you start to show

11:12 symptoms and then through that symptomatic period.

11:15 And then it would really be in, you know, bodily fluids, um, you know,

11:19 close contact with, you know, saliva, any sort of secretions, things like that.

11:23 So, you really do have to be in close contact with the person.

11:26 It's not, you know, through speaking and through airborne transmission

11:29 like we think of with influenza or CO 19 was.

11:32 And so after several days of observation,

11:35 the folks that are being carefully watched, uh,

11:38 officials are going to decide whether those 15 will actually get to go home

11:43 for the rest of their 42day monitoring

11:46 period or if they'll stay under medical observance.

11:49 I I wonder which you think is more advisable,

11:53 how they go about even making that decision.

11:57 Right.

11:57 And and that's really one of the main questions we've been getting

11:59 the last couple days is is you know which is preferred and you

12:02 know it's a difficult question to answer and it's really up

12:05 to each jurisdiction and what their tolerance level for for this risk is.

12:10 Um you know I think both there's you know both ways make sense.

12:14 Um you know some jurisdictions are sending people home

12:17 like in Canada that's what we've done and they're isolating.

12:20 I think you know still the the critical aspect is really monitoring daily

12:24 you know and making sure that if you do have symptoms then it's

12:28 really you know a matter of getting medical care and alerting the proper

12:31 authorities because that would you know

12:33 that would lead to potentially more spread.

12:35 Bryce Warner thanks so much for sharing your expertise.

12:38 Great.

12:39 Thank you for having me.