Emory Hospital monitoring 2 passengers from hantavirus cruise ship | What we know about the symptoms

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Good evening and thanks for joining us on 11 Alive and streaming on our 11 Alive apps. I'm Jennifer Bellamy >> and I'm Cheryl Preheim. Tonight, a couple from that cruise ship linked to a deadly honor outbreak is now back in Atlanta. We know 18 Americans from that ship were taken to Nebraska where the university's medical center in Omaha is currently keeping 16 patients. They are in the national quarantine unit. Two patients from Georgia landed this morning in Atlanta to be monitored at Emery University. We followed the team from the airport to Emery University Hospital with our 11 Live Sky Tracker.

[00:00:36]This couple's ordeal is not over. We streamed this all live from our 11 Live streaming studio today. 11 Live's Grace King joining us now live from Emory University Hospital Indicator. So, Grace, what do we know so far about these two patients that are there?

[00:00:52]Well, Emory says this is exactly what its serious communicable disease unit was built for. They helped with Ebola back in 2014. They're ready to do the same with HANA virus now in 2026. They said they have two passengers from that cruise ship, one symptomatic, one asymptomatic, and are ready to treat them if necessary.

[00:01:10]On Monday, a high security health response touchdown at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. I mean this is a system uh that exists for exactly this kind of scenario and what you are seeing is the system working. Uh the system kind of will absorb uh passengers as needed and this is a very well rehearsed uh system that exists.

[00:01:34]>> Video shows health officials greeting a couple from the MV Hondas cruise ship on the tarmac before transporting them to Emmery University Hospital. So, it is a couple, but because of their situation on the ship, uh they were traveling together to Emmery.

[00:01:48]>> In a statement, a spokesperson for Emery University Hospital said it is part of the regional emerging special pathogen treatment center network, which provides specialized capabilities for safely managing high consequence infectious diseases. They said one symptomatic individual is receiving care in Emoryy's bioontainment unit and one asymptomatic individual identified as a close contact is undergoing evaluation and monitoring.

[00:02:12]>> Um we do think that being able to provide those aggressive measures to people can change outcomes and that's the importance of being close to this type of care and to be able to provide that critical care for individuals should they need it.

[00:02:27]And health officials this morning said there are no guarantees in life, but they're putting in different safety measures in place to ensure the community stays safe and healthy. They do not believe there is a risk to the public at this time. Live at Emory University, Grace King, 11 Alive News.

[00:02:40]>> All right, Grace, thank you so much. And at an event today, Georgia Governor Brian Kim said that he believes all Georgians will be safe if someone is sick with haunt virus because Emory is fully prepared >> and there is nobody better to handle that uh than the folks at Emery. think about how they've uh dealt with uh folks that had Ebola that have been transported back here. And we're going to do the right thing. We're going to help it get these people back and get them in the right environment that doesn't uh put our fellow Georgians in jeopardy.

[00:03:11]>> Governor Kemp is referring to the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Emry treated the first patients diagnosed with the virus in the United States after both were infected while doing humanitarian work in West Africa. At the time, doctors used experimental treatments and within weeks, both patients were declared Ebola free. Emory would later go on to treat at least two more patients. There is growing interest in this story, especially since two of the passengers are now back in Georgia. And with that, more conversations online. I talked with Dr. Felipe Leello on our 11 live stream today about misconceptions and misinformation that he's seen. He says a lot of it stems from unfounded COVID comparisons. Panto virus is not covid.

[00:03:53]Uh this is this doesn't have the potential to become a uh you know pandemic or largecale outbreak because of the nature of the virus because it requires really close contact because um you know it's not as easily transmissible as covid but it is a wakeup call u that we need to have these public health systems in place. uh the funding of uh the public health authorities uh unfortunately has been slashed over the last couple of years.

[00:04:22]So this is making more difficult the job of public health and and and authorities uh to control not only this outbreak but potentially future outbreaks because we know um those are going to happen. This >> Dr. Dr. Labello also said it was more difficult to coordinate the evacuation of passengers representing more than a dozen countries because the US is no longer part of the World Health Organization. But talking with reporters this morning, President Trump says he does not regret the decision to leave the WHO.

[00:04:53]>> Do you regret um withdrawing from the WHO given that >> No, I I'm glad. So, we were paying the World Health Organization $500 million a year. Look, it's a lot of money, but in the overall scope, it's not that much, but it's a lot of money. And we weren't being treated well. They gave us all wrong information on COVID. They were totally wrong.

[00:05:19]>> The president signed an executive order to leave the organization in 2025. The US completed the withdrawal in January of this year. The president says he believes the country is quote in good shape to handle the virus.