In Illinois, authorities are investigating a suspected hantavirus case involving a man who had no connection to the recent international cruise ship outbreak. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is working on this potential case in Winnebago County, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is carrying out further tests. The CDC has noted that the test results for the man could take up to ten days, during which he will remain closely monitored. Notably, the man had not traveled on the MV Hondius cruise ship, where the hantavirus infected at least 11 passengers, resulting in three fatalities.
Cleaning Hazard
Officials suspect the Illinois man might have contracted the virus through exposure to rodent droppings while cleaning a property. According to the IDPH, such cases typically occur when individuals clean areas previously inhabited by rodents, causing the virus from aerosolized urine or feces to become airborne. Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, an infectious disease expert at Saint Anthony Hospital, explained these circumstances to ABC7. Fortunately, the man only exhibited mild symptoms that did not necessitate hospital admission and is recovering well. The strain he contracted is believed to be a North African variant, which is not transmissible from person to person and differs from the Andes strain responsible for the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise.
The Dr. from Bend
Despite no direct link to the cruise ship, hantavirus cases in the United States are not uncommon, with roughly 900 instances documented since 1993. The virus gained notoriety after claiming the lives of famed actor Gene Hackman and his wife last year. In related news, a doctor from Bend, Oregon, who stepped in as the cruise ship’s physician after the original doctor fell ill with hantavirus, has also tested positive for the virus, which is primarily spread through rodents.
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, who lives in a stunning $2 million home in the gorgeous city of Bend, 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.’ Kornfeld joined the cruise in Argentina last month, and previously told CNN he was expecting the trip of a lifetime sailing through the south Atlantic before the hantavirus outbreak.
He said the voyage fell into chaos when a Dutch couple contracted the hantavirus strain, which is believed to be from a landfill site in Argentina but the source remains under investigation. Kornfeld said he ‘fell into the role of becoming the ship doctor’ after the onboard medic was also sickened by the virus, and said the doctor and two other people became seriously ill within a day of the outbreak. He described their symptoms as ‘a lot of fever, fatigue, flushing, some gastrointestinal issues, some shortness of breath.’ ‘The fear with hantavirus is you can go from seriously ill to critically ill very quickly,’ he said. On Monday, 18 passengers who were on the cruise arrived back in the US. The CDC said it will be monitoring all passengers for symptoms for at least 42 days. Kornfeld said he felt secure that he would not spread the virus across the US due to the quick actions of health officials. He said he is isolating in a ‘very secure facility’, so ‘if I am to get sick, there’s no way that virus is getting out of this building.’
Amid fears that the Andes strain of the hantavirus could spread across the globe though person-to-person contact, health officials have scrambled to monitor potential outbreaks in a number of countries. On Tuesday night, a British tourist who boarded a plane with a woman who later died from hantavirus was detained at an Italian bar and ordered to quarantine in hospital for a month – despite showing no symptoms and testing negative for the disease. The holidaymaker and his companion – who was not even on the flight in question – were apprehended outside the bar on Tuesday night and taken to Sacco Hospital in Milan by the authorities. They have both been placed in quarantine until June 6, completing the 42-day isolation period required by the ministry of health. The British citizen, who is in his 60s, had boarded the same Airlink flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg as MV Hondius passenger Mirjam Schilperoord, 69, who later died, as well as a second person who later tested positive.
Mirjam was the wife of Dutch ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, who is believed to be ‘patient zero’. The couple became sick after visiting a landfill site in Argentina to watch birds. The UK government notified Italian authorities about the British tourist, who had visited various countries including Amsterdam before arriving in Milan, where his travel plans came to an abrupt halt. Because he had no private accommodation and was staying in a B&B, he will have to endure the whole of his quarantine in a single room in the Infectious Diseases ward of the hospital.
