Midwesterner who was NOT on rat virus cruise is feared to have hantavirus, as millionaire Oregon doctor, 69, says he caught disease during expedition
A man in Illinois is feared to have contracted hantavirus despite not being on the cruise ship linked to a recent outbreak across the globe.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said it is investigating a potential hantavirus case in Winnebago County, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is conducting additional testing.
The CDC cautioned that its test results for the man’s condition could take up to 10 days, and he will remain under strict observation.
Officials said the man was not on board the MV Hondius cruise ship where at least 11 people contracted hantavirus after a breakout last month, with three people killed by the deadly virus.
It is believed the man in Illinois contracted the virus by coming into contact with rodent droppings while cleaning a home, the IDPH said.
‘Typically, we see it in cases like this one, where someone was cleaning an area where rats may have dwelled, and it may have aerosolized the either urine or feces from the rat that contain the virus,’ Saint Anthony Hospital Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, per ABC7.
Officials said the man showed milk symptoms that did not require hospitalization, and he is recovering as expected.
He is believed to have a North African strain that is not spread person to person, and is different to the Andes strain that broke out on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
A man in Illinois is feared to have contracted hantavirus despite not being on the cruise ship linked to a recent outbreak across the globe. Health officials in Tenerife, where the cruise ship docked, are pictured
It comes as an American doctor from Bend, Oregon who took on the role of the cruise ship doctor after its initial doctor fell ill with hantavirus revealed that he has also tested positive for the deadly rat-borne virus.
Dr Stephen Kornfeld, a retired oncologist, was praised after he jumped into action and helped care for sick passengers on the cruise ship when they were struck down with the virus.
Kornfeld told CNN that he has since tested positive for hantavirus, and is in isolation in a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
He said he is currently symptomless, but cautioned that ‘it is still possible that the test represents an evolving disease, and I will get symptoms down the road. This is why I’m in the biocontainment unit.’
