CDC to End Hantavirus Response as U.S. Outbreak Risk Diminishes
Source: The Wall Street Journal.
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CDC to End Hantavirus Response as U.S. Outbreak Risk Diminishes
Move comes after the end of a 42-day quarantine at a facility in Nebraska for exposed American cruise ship passengers
By Sabrina Siddiqui
June 24, 2026 5:00 am ET
A person in a biohazard suit assists in the disembarkation of passengers from a cruise ship in May, Hayden Smith/Reuters
WASHINGTON--The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday is expected to formally wind down its hantavirus response, nearly two months after an outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic triggered an international effort to contain a rare strain that left three people dead and infected several others. ... "Protecting Americans is our highest responsibility. CDC's hantavirus response officially concludes June 24, 2026," acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.
The details
The announcement will free up considerable resources at the CDC that since early May have been dedicated toward containing the outbreak. More than 100 CDC staffers were assigned to hantavirus response at the height of the scare. The conclusion of the response efforts comes days after a 42-day quarantine at a specialized facility in Nebraska for American cruise ship passengers exposed to the rare Andes strain came to an end Sunday.
More than a dozen Americans were initially housed at the Nebraska facility. Some left the facility earlier this month after the Trump administration asked their home states to agree to continued monitoring, including round-the-clock supervision to ensure compliance with quarantine requirements. But eight others remained in Nebraska through the end of the quarantine period, including one who alleged the government was holding her there against her will.
The back story
The CDC maintained throughout the outbreak that the risk to the overall American public remained low. But while hantavirus doesn't normally spread between humans, the Andes strain, primarily found in Chile and Argentina, is the exception. The strain can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease. ... White House officials said that risk, coupled with the virus's long incubation period, justified enforcing the full 42-day quarantine despite criticism from some public health experts, who argued the measure was unnecessary because nearly all of the American cruise ship passengers remained asymptomatic throughout their stay in Nebraska.
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Sabrina Siddiqui is a national politics reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington, D.C. She has covered the White House, Congress and each U.S. presidential election since 2012. Previously, Sabrina worked at the Guardian, HuffPost and Bloomberg.
She is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and NewsNation.
A graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Sabrina lives in Washington with her husband and two children. She can be reached via email or on Signal at sabrinas.85.
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/sabrina-siddiqui
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Exclusive: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday is expected to formally wind down its response to the hantavirus response, nearly two months after an outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic.
Exclusive | CDC to End Hantavirus Response as U.S. Outbreak Risk Diminishes
The move comes after the end of a 42-day quarantine at a facility in Nebraska for exposed American cruise ship passengers.
on.wsj.com
5:03 AM · Jun 24, 2026
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Exclusive: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday is expected to formally wind down its response to the hantavirus response, nearly two months after an outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic.
— The Wall Street Journal (@wsj.com) 2026-06-24T09:03:34.837968Z