Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
With Hantavirus Threat Behind Them, US Passengers Return To Daily Life
The New York Times: Hantavirus Quarantine Ends For 18 Americans Exposed On A Cruise Ship
Quarantine ended on Sunday for American passengers of a cruise ship that was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak. The passengers had been held for weeks at a federal facility in Nebraska. The quarantine was lifted at 2 p.m. Central time, officials said. It marked a return to day-to-day life for all 18 passengers, including the six who had stayed at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center until the end of the 42-day period. Since the end of May, 12 had been released from the unit to home confinement. (Spoto, 6/21)
NBC News: The Hantavirus Quarantine Is Over. Here’s What Cruise Passengers And Scientists Learned.
The moment ends a painful chapter of isolation and uncertainty for those exposed, who say they are looking forward to hugging parents, getting haircuts and touching grass. (Bendix, 6/21)
The latest on the Ebola outbreak —
Bloomberg: Ebola Cases Top 1,000 In Congo As Virus Infects Frontline Health Workers
Ebola cases have surpassed 1,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where health workers are becoming infected before anyone realizes they’re treating the deadly virus, exposing a dangerous weakness in efforts to contain one of the world’s fastest-growing outbreaks. (Gale, 6/22)
AP: 6-Month-Old Ebola Victim Buried As Congo Outbreak Spreads
Mourners gathered Friday to bury a 6-month-old girl who died from Ebola earlier this week, the third child to die at an orphanage in eastern Congo as authorities have struggled to contain the latest outbreak. Carrying a cross, people stood at a distance as the small coffin was lowered into the ground by masked and gloved health workers, and a Catholic priest prayed over her body. “It’s a feeling of sadness because we have lost one of our own, a daughter of the church,” said Father Innocent Ndogo. (Kabumba and McMakin, 6/20)
Bloomberg: Fighting Ebola Means Going Door To Door To Explain It’s Real
Faced with a combative crowd demanding to see the body about to be buried in the trading hub of Bunia, the Red Cross team proposed a compromise borne from past Ebola outbreaks: They offered to open the coffin as long as onlookers brought protection to avoid infection. The rejection was swift. The crowd in this war-torn part of eastern Congo assaulted the volunteers, seriously injuring two of them, and opened the coffin, unwittingly exposing themselves to the virus at its most contagious. (Furlong, 6/20)
