US Passenger Describes 40-Day Quarantine After Hantavirus Cases on Cruise Ship

A 29-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship where three people died of hantavirus is spending what he expects to be a 40-day quarantine at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The man had been on a 35-day cruise to remote destinations aboard the MV Hondius and had planned to return to Boston with his fiance.

Instead, hantavirus cases aboard the vessel led to an international effort to find ports willing to accept the ship and repatriate passengers. He told the BBC that he made an egg sandwich for breakfast Wednesday using ingredients ordered from a numbered menu provided by staff.

An all-garbed-up nurse knocks on his door twice a day to remind him to take and report his temperature, which has remained normal so far. Staff wear better masks and shields when delivering food or blankets. When they entered his room to take blood on Tuesday they wore even more gear and must change it between rooms.

He had not received results from those tests as of Wednesday morning.

The passenger said he has been ordering items to make his room feel more like home. Packages containing a mattress pad, new pillows and other comforts sent by loved ones or ordered by him are expected to arrive soon. The first package he received contained an adult colouring book with inspirational quotes.

The colouring pencils from a separate order had not yet been delivered. He and the 14 other American passengers who arrived Monday morning at the federally funded unit order their meals each night for the following day from a set menu. His room contains a phone, exercise bike, bed, drawers, bathroom, chairs, desk and television.