Why cruise ship passengers with possible hantavirus exposure went to Nebraska

The National Quarantine Center is located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Nebraska Medicine hide caption toggle caption Nebraska Medicine Sixteen of the 18 passengers transferred to the U.S. from a cruise ship where there was an outbreak of hantavirus arrived in Omaha, Neb., on Monday for evaluation after disembarking the vessel in Spain's Canary Islands over the weekend. Of the 15 U.S. citizens and one dual U.S.-British citizen who arrived in Nebraska, all but one are currently being housed in the National Quarantine Unit. That patient tested positive for the virus and was being housed in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, officials said at a Monday news conference. The 15 people in the quarantine unit will continue to be monitored for signs of the illness. Passengers carry their belongings in plastic bags after being evacuated from the MV Hondius after docking in the Granadilla Port on Sunday in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. Chris McGrath/ hide caption toggle caption Chris McGrath/ Nebraska may seem an unlikely location to process these individuals, but it is home to the National Quarantine Unit — the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S. — and the separate Nebraska Biocontainment Unit . They are highly specialized facilities located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and widely considered among the best in the world. The $1 million, five-room biocontainment unit was dedicated in 2005. …