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US Hospitals Ready for Infectious Disease Outbreaks
12 May
Summary
- Fifteen cruise ship passengers are in quarantine at UNMC.
- Two specialized units handle infectious disease monitoring and care.
- UNMC units have treated Ebola and COVID-19 patients previously.
Americans evacuated from a cruise ship experiencing a hantavirus outbreak are being monitored at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Fifteen individuals are currently housed in the National Quarantine Unit, the nation's only federally funded facility of its kind, designed for monitoring individuals exposed to infectious diseases.
Should any passengers develop symptoms, they will be transferred to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit for hospital-level care. This unit is equipped to manage patients with airborne diseases, though its capacity varies. Two passengers have already been transferred to a biocontainment facility at Emory University in Atlanta due to capacity limitations.
Both UNMC units have a proven track record in handling serious infectious diseases. The quarantine unit was first activated in 2020 for COVID-19 evacuees from China, and the biocontainment unit treated early COVID-19 cases and Americans infected with Ebola in 2014.
UNMC leadership expressed confidence in their preparedness, stating their teams have trained for decades to safely provide care during such events while safeguarding staff and the community. Their specialized facilities ensure a robust response to national health crises.
