Hantavirus Update: History, Americans in quarantine, why you need not worry
It looks like most folks have joined
So thank you again for all of you for joining
us for our virtual media availability today
Um we will uh start with brief opening remarks from
um Carl Williams and Kimberly Clement and then we will
open it up to questions
So please hold all questions till the end
You're welcome to either raise your hand or uh put
your questions in the chat box and we will do
our best to get to as many as we can
in the short time we have available
We are recording um the uh recording of this availability
will be available afterwards if you would like it
Um so we with that we'll go ahead and start
with our opening remarks
Hi everybody
Uh thanks for joining
My name is Carl Williams
I'm the state public health veterinarian in the communicable Disease
branch of the Division of Public Health
And uh again I appreciate you being here
So we're here to talk about the cluster of junta
virus cases that was initially reported by the World Health
Organization associated with travel on a cruise ship
Uh what we know about this is that there are
Uh patients that have become infected with Andes virus which
is a particular type of junta virus that is unique
to Argentina
People have become sick uh and 3 people have died
none of them have been Americans
The most recent update from the World Health Organization is
from May 8th and you can find detailed information about
the outbreak there
And there were Americans on the ship that have been
uh repatriated back to Nebraska which is where they remain
except for two that have gone on to Emory University
So there are about 17 Americans that are still in
Nebraska and being assessed and they may remain there or
they may
Actually come home to their home states and we are
still in communication with our federal partners on that to
determine exactly what's going to happen uh but that is
kind of the status of the situation at the moment
And I think we'd be happy to take any questions
that you have unless uh Yeah and we just start
there
Yeah thank you Carl
So um whoever has questions you're welcome to either put
it in the chat or uh raise your hand and
we will go one at a time
Hi can you hear me Yes go ahead Lucy
Hey so um right now I think we're just kind
of wanting to know is this kind of a concern
that North Carolinians need to be uh focused on right
now I think that there's a lot of misconception um
as far as how uh dangerous it might be to
the public right now
Sure
I think a little bit of perspective and background on
these viruses might help
Uh these are not new viruses
So you may or may not remember the original outbreak
of hantaviruss pulmonary syndrome in 1993 in the Western United
States in the Four Corners region
That was caused by a particular junta virus called Sin
Nombre virus and it did uh cause a large number
of cases including fatalities
Um so this is a disease that's likely been present
in North America for some time but most cases are
from the Western United States
It's rare to see it in the eastern United States
but what we know Because this became reportable in 1995
including in North Carolina we all the states have been
doing surveillance for Hunta virus since then
We've only had one case identified in North Carolina and
that was in 1995
That was with another junta virus that we think was
Monongahela virus
There have been cases in Florida associated with Black Creek
Canal viruses and What I'm getting at here is there
are a lot of different types of hantaviruses and not
all of them occur in the United States and most
of them don't occur in North Carolina
In fact again in the Southeast it's an extremely rare
disease
These viruses also co-evolve with their rodent reservoir
So it's not like Andes virus is going to become
established in the United States
This is something that is concerning if you live in
Argentina
Or you travel there
Uh likewise if you travel to or visit the Four
Corners region or parts of California where this disease is
endemic yes it could be a concern but it's really
not something we'd Suggests that people should worry about here
in North Carolina
It's something we've known about for a long time
In fact the original outbreak of Andes virus was first
characterized in Argentina in 1996 so these are not new
viruses
Thank you
We'll go to our next question which I believe is
Anna King
Yes so really quickly um we did see that uh
there were some who were able to return home but
were not required to quarantine um as much as I
guess encouraged
Why is that And can we expect that to continue
with I think the one person who was on the
boat from North Carolina or on the cruise ship from
North Carolina
Yes our understanding is that there were some people including
some people from the United States that left the ship
early and they have returned to their home state
They did it in advance of the State Department coordinated
repatriation and you can find press release notices from California
and Virginia about this
However once the State Department became involved and the rest
of the American citizens were identified they were handled as
a group
So they were all first taken to Boffett Air Force
Base and then University of Nebraska Medical Center which is
where they all remain again except for two that were
transported onto Emory
And I don't know outside of the person who is
from North Carolina where the rest of them are from
Presumably they will those plans are being made with their
respective states
Those plans including uh quarantining or not quarantining
So the CDC is not using the word quarantine uh
but they are uh keeping them uh for a risk
assessment and clinical monitoring at Nebraska and the people are
free to stay there if they wish to
We'll go to our next question in the chat from
Patricia
She's asking if there's any additional details we can share
about the North Carolina resident
So no at this point we're not sharing any information
about the person
We'll go to our next question in the chat
Are we able to confirm if the North Carolina resident
is positive or simply being monitored in Nebraska and will
that passenger continue to be monitored there or at home
So They are being monitored in Nebraska
If they stay there they will continue to be monitored
and if they come home they would be monitored by
their respective local health department
They have not been tested as far as I know
but I would say that testing for hantav virus is
rapidly evolving new diagnostics are being developed as we speak