CDC boosts staff working on containing hantavirus outbreak from 3 to 100 as agency seeks to avoid Covid measures: report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has increased the number of staff working to contain the hantavirus outbreak from three to 100 personnel, as the agency tries to avoid strict safety measures similar to the Covid pandemic, according to a report.

The increase occurred last week and includes staffers from the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, which handles the threat of infectious diseases, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A hantavirus outbreak on the ocean vessel MV Hondius last month has resulted in three deaths and 11 people falling ill. Eight cases have been confirmed via lab test, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The 18 American passengers who were on the ship returned to the U.S. on Monday, and are in quarantine at specialized health care facilities in Nebraska and Atlanta.

The virus, which is spread by rodent droppings, is known to be less transmissible but more deadly than Covid, according to the report. The strain of hantavirus, known as Andes virus, is found in South America. The Andes strain is the only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.

Trump’s top public health officials, many of whom previously expressed skepticism about strict Covid measures, have stressed that the risk to the public from hantavirus remains low. However, the increase in CDC personnel assigned to deal with the outbreak suggests a sense of urgency to contain the virus before it spreads.

Senior Trump officials, including the president, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the CDC’s interim leader Jay Bhattacharya, who criticized the Covid pandemic’s restrictions, like quarantining and masks, are now working to explain the threat posed by hantavirus, according to the report. Federal officials, including some at the CDC, are doing everything they can to avoid causing public panic, some employees told the outlet.

Former CDC employees and infectious disease specialists also told the outlet that the agency had a slower response to the outbreak than it typically would. They said formal notice of the public health issue, which was sent out Friday, should have been issued earlier, according to the report.

Meanwhile, at the White House, there are discussions about the latest developments with the hantavirus several times a day, sources told the Journal.

The Independent has contacted HHS for more information.

The 18 American passengers aboard the MV Hondius returned to the country Monday, and are now being monitored at specialized health care facilities designed to treat people with infectious diseases in Nebraska and Atlanta. Fifteen of the passengers are being housed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, while one passenger who tested positive for hantavirus was placed in a nearby biocontainment unit.

Additionally, a couple was taken to Atlanta after one began experiencing symptoms. However, health officials said that the person has since tested negative.

About a dozen CDC employees are in Nebraska monitoring the passengers quarantined, according to the report. It was not immediately clear where the staffers recently assigned to the hantavirus outbreak were stationed, and what their responsibilities were related to the virus.