Health officials in New Jersey said two Garden State residents may have been exposed to someone with hantavirus who was a passenger on the stricken MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of a virus outbreak in recent days.
The two New Jersey residents were not onboard the ship, but had traveled on the same flight with the infected person, the New Jersey Department of Health said in a statement on Friday.
The health officials said their agency was informed about the potential exposure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Neither of the two persons have symptoms of the virus, officials said, but they are being monitored as a precaution.
“At this time, the risk to the general public in New Jersey remains very low. No current hantavirus cases have been identified in the state, and there is no history of a confirmed hantavirus case reported in New Jersey,” the state health department said.
The statement added that other state agencies are monitoring passengers who may have been exposed to the virus and are returning to their respective states.
The state health department did not provide names, ages, or other information about the two New Jersey residents who were potentially exposed, citing privacy concerns.
It also did not reveal details about airports, airlines, or other locations the individuals may have visited. It is unclear whether they returned to the state.
The World Health Organization said in its most recent update that there are eight suspected or confirmed cases of the virus, including three deaths. Five people have been confirmed to have hantavirus and the other three were suspected of contracting it. WHO did not give details on whether the deaths were among people who were suspected to have the virus or had confirmed to have contracted it.
Two British nationals were confirmed to have contracted the virus, according to the UK’s Health Security Agency. Another suspected case was believed to be a British national on Tristan da Cunha, an island in the Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories and considered one of the remote areas in the world, it said.
“None of the British citizens onboard are currently reporting symptoms but they are being closely monitored,” the agency said Friday.
The ship with the suspected cases is expected to dock in Tenerife, on the Canary Islands, on Sunday, UK health officials said. There, government staff will support UK nationals who are disembarking on the island and said passengers or crew who show no symptoms will be escorted by government staff to an airport. Then, they will be granted free travel back to the UK, it said.
Most hantavirus strains do not transmit via person-to-person contact, said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the UN health body, in a news conference. The one that was found on board the cruise vessel, known as the Andes strain of hantavirus, is the only variant known to transmit from person to person, she said.
President Donald Trump commented on the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak on Thursday, telling reporters he had been briefed on the incident and that it is “very much, we hope, under control.”
The CDC and the New Jersey Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.