CNN
By Lex Harvey, Deidre McPhillips, Emma Tucker, CNN
(CNN) — Dr. Stephen Kornfeld was taking the trip of a lifetime aboard a cruise sailing across the Atlantic Ocean when he was called on to care for other passengers who fell ill. Now, he’s the only MV Hondius passenger in a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center after initially testing positive for Andes hantavirus.
Before the world became aware of the hantavirus outbreak on board the Hondius, several people on the ship developed “a flu-like illness” in early April, the oncologist told CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Tuesday. Kornfeld also endured night sweat, chills and mild respiratory symptoms, as well as more than two weeks of severe fatigue, he said.
“At the time, it was felt like this is just some virus. And now, in retrospect, there is a question, could it have been hantavirus? But it’s just speculation. There’s no way to really know.”
Kornfeld says he initially tested “faintly positive” for hantavirus before arriving in Nebraska, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is awaiting the results of confirmatory tests, expected to come this week.
He warned that “what I hear from the experts who I’m seeing daily is that the lab tests may not be that straightforward to interpret, so it may never be known if that illness – which others also had – was hantavirus or the typical virus that circulates to a cruise boat.”
Kornfeld said his time caring for people who were ill, as well as time socializing with a passenger who later died from hantavirus, “certainly puts me at higher risk.”
Of life in the biocontainment unit, he said, “It’s a little weird being in here by myself, but the nurses come in, the doctors come in. I’m on WhatsApp all the time. It’s really amazing how quickly time flies.”
Most of the other American passengers who boarded the Hondius six weeks ago are in small, spartan rooms with beds and exercise equipment at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, facing what could be weeks of isolation.
A little over a week since the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of the rare hantavirus aboard the Hondius, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, a global repatriation effort is still underway for the passengers and crew who were aboard the ship.
As of Tuesday morning, 122 people — 87 passengers and 35 crew members — had been evacuated, and most had returned to their home countries. Five Australians and one New Zealander are in the Netherlands and set to be repatriated later this week, according to authorities.
As for what he’s looking forward to most after his weeks of quarantine end, Rosmarin said, “it may sound cliche, but I cannot wait to give my fiance and my family and friends hugs, because that’s something that I just really miss. That first hug is going to feel like the best thing in the world.”
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