Along with 13 other Americans, they were transported to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska, after being exposed to a hantavirus while on the cruise ship Modius.
Nearly 150 people from 23 countries were exposed to hantavirus on the cruise, which departed from Argentina in early April and was making its way across the Atlantic. The World Health Organization has tied eight cases and three deaths to the outbreak.
The presence of Utah residents on the ship caused a local response, Summit County Health Department Director Phil Bondurant said
“We spent the better part of the weekend on the phone with the state health department. All 13 local health departments in the state are working closely together,” Bondurant said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 11. “We are prepared, with the support of the state health department and the Center for Disease Control, to manage this situation as it presents itself.”
In a Monday statement, state health officials said the Utah residents will remain at the federal quarantine facility until they are cleared to return home. Once in Utah, they will be monitored for symptoms.
Public health experts do not expect the outbreak to impact the general public, Bondurant added. Officials are familiar with this strain of the disease, known as the Andes hantavirus.
“We've known about it for a bit of time, and it's been studied,” he said. “It's unique that it occurred in the way that it did on a cruise ship. However, with the information that's available to us right now, I'm confident that the steps that have been taken are going to limit disease transmission.”
Hantaviruses are rodent-borne illnesses which can be deadly in humans. According to the WHO, human-to-human transmission of the disease is uncommon. More often, humans will catch the disease through exposure to rodents.
Bondurant said rodents carrying the disease could live in the Wasatch Back.
“Anytime you're in an enclosed space with rodents or rodent droppings, there's always a concern at this elevation,” he said. “The species that traditionally carry hantavirus we do have here in in the state of Utah, and so if you encounter rodents [our advice] is really about taking care of the cleanup, wearing a mask, using a 50/50 bleach-to-water solution to wet down the area before sweeping or removing the rodent waste.”
Summit County Health is also monitoring the state’s measles outbreak, which currently has 638 confirmed cases – 14 in the Wasatch Back.
The department has information available regarding the outbreaks.
Summit County Health is a financial supporter of KPCW.