2 NJ Residents Exposed To Hantavirus, Health Officials Say

Two Garden State residents are being monitored by the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) after being exposed to hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship.

According to health officials, the NJDOH has been notified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that two New Jersey residents were potentially exposed to a person infected with hantavirus after this person departed from the cruise ship MV Hondius.

Authorities said that the two were not passengers on the cruise ship, and the potential exposure occurred during air travel abroad.

Additionally, the two potentially exposed people have not displayed symptoms indicating the hantavirus, health officials say. Experts say that symptoms can incubate for up to six weeks.

“At this time, the risk to the general public in New Jersey remains very low,” a NJDOH statement read. “No current hantavirus cases have been identified in the state, and there is no history of a confirmed hantavirus case reported in New Jersey.”

Health officials are not releasing any information about the potentially exposed individuals in an attempt to protect their identities.

New Jersey officials are calling the incident an “evolving public health situation.” Other state health agencies across the country are conducting similar monitoring of returning passengers.

What To Know

World Health Organization (WHO) officials say the risk to the wider public is low because hantavirus — usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings — isn’t easily transmitted between people.

“We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO's alert and response director.

Three people have died in the outbreak, including a Dutch man who fell on the cruise ship and died on April 11, and his wife, who died at a hospital in Johannesburg, who briefly boarded a plane but was too ill to fly. A German woman also succumbed to the virus.

Learn More Here — Health Officials Monitoring Hantavirus Cruise Passengers: What To Know In NJ

With reporting from Sara Winick