Dramatic footage captures moment MV Hondius passengers met by hazmat team at US hospital

Two passengers who had been aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship have been rushed to hospital after they were medically evacuated from the MV Hondius on Monday.

Dramatic footage captured the moment hospital staffers met the virus-exposed patients while clad head-to-toe in hazmat gear and PPE. The footage captured US healthcare workers whisking them from an ambulance and into critical care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, with one patient transported in a wheelchair.

The pair had just completed a five-week voyage aboard the MV Hondius — the vessel at the centre of a deadly rat-borne virus outbreak that triggered an international incident after three passengers lost their lives on board.

The Georgia hospital has since confirmed that both individuals arrived directly from the MV Hondius following the deadly outbreak at sea. One patient is symptomatic and receiving treatment in Emory's biocontainment unit, while the other is asymptomatic and currently undergoing evaluation and monitoring.

The two passengers had disembarked the virus-stricken cruise ship at the Canary Islands before being transferred to Emory University's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit in Atlanta. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention notified the Georgia Department of Public Health of the situation on Monday (May 11), reports the Mirror.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Health (DPH) stated: "Federal health care workers are taking every precaution needed in each of these cases, and there is no risk to the public at this time." Early signs of hantavirus infection include fever, chills, myalgia (muscle aches), headaches and gastrointestinal symptoms, which can deteriorate into acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure and shock. DPH officials confirmed the US case fatality rate sits at about 35 per cent.

Nearly 40 strains of hantavirus exist across the globe, each causing distinct illnesses, though the rare Andes strain remains the only one known to spread between humans. Transmission most commonly occurs through contact with rat faeces, saliva and urine. However, officials have stressed that the symptomatic patient on US soil is no cause for alarm.

Emory University epidemiologist Dr Jodie Guest has revealed that fewer than 900 cases of hantavirus have ever been recorded in US history, with the medical expert dubbing the disease a "dead-end virus".

"Normally, we consider the hantavirus a dead-end virus, meaning one person gets it from a rodent, and then that is the only person who will get it," Dr Guest said.

"This will not become a global pandemic. The transmission does not work effectively that way."

Fellow health professionals have echoed Dr Guest's reassurances in a bid to ease American concerns over a potential second pandemic. University of Florida Health Shands Hospital chief epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist Dr Nicole Iovine clarified that the manner in which hantavirus spreads between individuals differs significantly from that of influenza or coronavirus. "These viruses affect the upper airways, mainly, so speaking and coughing can easily transmit it," Dr Iovine said. "The hantavirus and the Andes virus tend to infect very deep in the lungs, so it is not as easily transmitted through the air."

According to the World Health Organisation, there is currently no vaccine available for hantavirus infection.