US Hantavirus-Ship

Five American cruise ship passengers exposed to hantavirus are leaving a Nebraska quarantine facility. U.S. health officials say they will complete monitoring at home after remaining symptom-free. They arrived in Nebraska three weeks ago following a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a South Atlantic cruise. The virus usually spreads through rodent droppings, but the Andes virus may spread between people in rare cases. Thirteen cases, including three deaths, are linked to the ship. There have been no U.S. cases connected to the ship, and the risk remains low. Federal officials arranged non-commercial travel with biocontainment measures for the five passengers.

The Trump administration has put up $750,000 to charter a private yacht to evacuate a single American citizen from a remote South Pacific island after she had been aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak. That's according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press. The woman, who may have been exposed to the virus while aboard the cruise liner in April, had gotten off the ship and flown to San Francisco before traveling to isolated Pitcairn Island through Tahiti. The costly evacuation has added strain to the State Department budget for unforeseen emergencies. Its balance is at the lowest level in seven years.