Two New Jersey residents are being monitored after being potentially exposed to a person infected with hantavirus, state health officials announced Friday.
The residents allegedly came in contact with a person who left the cruise ship MV Hondius, which has been in the headlines lately as having had a deadly hantavirus outbreak after it departed from Argentina. It is currently on its way to Spain’s Canary Island, where passengers will be extrapatriated to their countries and Spanish citizens on the cruise will be taken to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine and further observations.
Health officials say the New Jersey residents were not passengers on the ship, and the potential exposure happened during air travel abroad. Neither was reported to have symptoms. The incubation period lasts anywhere between four to 42 days. Asymptomatic persons are not considered infectious.
At this time, the risk to the general public in New Jersey remains very low, health officials said.
No current hantavirus cases have been identified in the state, and there is no history of a confirmed hantavirus case reported in New Jersey.
Hantaviruses circulating in the United States are carried by rodents and are not known to spread between people.
However, the strain involved in the MV Hondius outbreak, known as the Andes virus, is found in South America and is the only known hantavirus strain capable of person-to-person transmission, but it is rare and typically requires close, prolonged contact with an infected individual or their bodily fluids.
Health officials are not releasing any additional information on the identities of the two New Jersey residents due to privacy concerns.
0 Comments