US patient with hantavirus symptoms tests negative

WASHINGTON — US health officials said Wednesday a patient who had exhibited mild hantavirus symptoms has tested negative for the illness and was no longer in a biocontainment unit.

That patient is one of 18 being monitored in US medical facilities after they were evacuated from the cruise ship MV Hondius, the focal point of the hantavirus outbreak.

During a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) press briefing authorities also clarified that a different patient who officials had said tested “mildly positive” for hantavirus was awaiting results from an additional test.

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“The initial test that we received was from abroad, and it was inconclusive in its results, and so we’re in the process of testing,” said David Fitter, the CDC incident manager for the hantavirus response. He added that results are expected in approximately one day.

That patient was initially sent to a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has specialized facilities for people potentially exposed to high-consequence infectious diseases.

Later Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Nebraska facility said in a statement that the patient was “being monitored and assessed” outside the biocontainment unit.

“He has been medically cleared to move to the National Quarantine Unit,” spokesperson Kayla Thomas said in a statement.

There are 15 more asymptomatic people in a quarantine unit at that facility.

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The mildly symptomatic patient in Georgia’s Emory Hospital who tested negative for the virus’s Andes variant would meanwhile continue to be monitored by health professionals, he said, along with the individual’s asymptomatic partner.

Several US states are tracking others who had previously disembarked from the cruise ship or had been potentially exposed.

Globally three people have died and seven have been confirmed to have the rare hantavirus disease, which is typically tied to rodents.

Health authorities have repeatedly emphasized that the broader risk to public health from the outbreak is low. /dl