Arriving in the isolation ward of a biocontainment hospital is an unsettling, scary experience. In 2014, I spent 19 days in one while being treated for Ebola, watching the news cycle churn around me as my world receded to a small window, a phone, and the handful of providers in protective suits who came into my room every day.

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Thrust back into the front line by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, infectious disease experts have to balance informing the public about its potential risks without provoking undue fear of a Covid-scale pandemic.

The deaths of three cruise ship passengers during a rare hantavirus outbreak has sparked international alarm -- and flashbacks to when the world tipped into a pandemic six years ago.

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Since the first sign of an outbreak, the reminders have come from government officials, health agencies and plenty of experts: There’s no reason to worry. Don’t panic. It’s under control.

“We have this under control, and we’re not worried about it,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a briefing Monday when asked about the hantavirus outbreak that has moved from cruise ship to quarantine.

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As more than five million fans around the globe prepare to travel to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, concerns over disease outbreaks are growing.

Dr. William Goedel, an epidemiologist and affiliate faculty at Brown University’s Pandemic Center, created a map to help keep tabs on the movement of teams and fans as they watch 104 tournament games from the opening match June 11 to the final on July 19.

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Passengers from the Hondius cruise ship are being repatriated under a patchwork of measures that reflect uncertainty over how this strain of hantavirus spreads, complicating efforts to contain the deadly outbreak.

Some passengers are being placed in biocontainment units, notably in France, for at least two weeks. Australia plans to quarantine passengers in a purpose-built facility outside Perth. But in the Netherlands, most are being asked to self-isolate for six weeks, with short outdoor walks permitted under masking and distancing rules.

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A new report has put Iowa in the lowest tier when it comes to public health emergency preparedness.

The annual Ready or Not report by the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health evaluates each state’s preparedness by looking at indicators like workforce mobility and public health funding. This year, it moved Iowa down from the middle tier to the low tier.

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After Trump Admin. slashed federal research funding, cut CDC staffing & purged cruise ship inspectors and port health staff, Brown University pandemic expert says incident: “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now”

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NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

Seventeen Americans who are currently on board the Dutch cruise ship enduring a hantavirus outbreak will make their way back to the United States on a repatriation flight arranged by the Department of State.

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In late January 2020, an 80-year-old boarded the Diamond Princess in Yokohama with a cough. It was one of the first major outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 outside China. As the British cruise ship sailed from Yokohama to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Okinawa and back, the still-new virus spread throughout the vessel.

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The Georgia Department of Public Health is continuing to monitor two residents exposed to hantavirus aboard a cruise ship last month. Officials could monitor the couple for up to 45 days, Emory University epidemiologist Jodie Guest said.

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