WHO Official Calls Cruise Ship Passengers High-Risk Hantavirus Contacts After 3 Deaths

A World Health Organization official warned that passengers and crew on a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak should be treated as high-risk contacts as Americans head home following three deaths.

"Our recommendations are we're considering everyone on board, the crew and the passengers as high-risk contacts because there are current investigations that are really trying to understand what types of exposures each of them had," said Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management at WHO. "Because there's so much uncertainty at the moment, we've recommended that everybody be considered a high-risk contact."

Kerkhove told Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich during "The Sunday Briefing" that WHO is requiring a multi-country response to prevent further spread.

The outbreak involves the Andes strain of the rodent-borne hantavirus. Passengers on the MV Hondius contracted the disease and fell ill. The ship arrived early Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife, where passengers began disembarking and flying home.

Spanish officials said local health authorities are testing passengers to confirm they are asymptomatic before transport ashore in small boats, according to Reuters. The first plane carrying Spanish passengers departed for a military hospital in Madrid, where they will remain under quarantine.

American passengers from the MV Hondius will fly to a medical center in Nebraska after disembarking.

Kerkhove said WHO recommends a 42-day active follow-up period after passengers return home. "This would include health checks by authorities and either be quarantined at home or quarantined in a medical facility," she said.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told ABC News on Saturday that federal officials do not plan to mandate quarantine for the American passengers upon arrival in Nebraska. They will be screened in the U.S. and either stay briefly at Nebraska’s National Quarantine Unit or return home to monitor for symptoms over 42 days while staying in contact with local health authorities.