CDC Cuts Leave Cruise-Ship Sanitation Gaps as Hantavirus Strikes Dutch Vessel
Amid a hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch cruise ship, reports allege the CDC disbanded nearly all Vessel Sanitation Program staff, leaving only a small group of officers and a trainee epidemiologist, raising questions about outbreak readiness as six-month training and recruitment hurdles persist. The 150-passenger MV Hondius has seen 3 deaths and 5 infections from an Andes-strain virus capable of human-to-human transmission, though WHO officials say it is not the start of a pandemic.
