American Doctor Who Cared for Hantavirus Patients on Cruise Ship Cleared to Leave Isolation

An American doctor who helped care for sick passengers during the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has been cleared to leave a high-security hospital room where he was isolated after an unclear test result. Stephen Kornfeld was among more than 120 passengers and crew evacuated from the ship and flown to several countries for quarantine. He was one of the 16 Americans taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center after a nasal swab taken on board returned inconclusive results for the virus.

Kornfeld was placed in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, a sealed hospital area used to safely monitor or treat patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases, according to the facility. On Wednesday, spokesperson Kayla Thomas said that Kornfeld would now join the 15 other Americans being monitored at the National Quarantine Unit rather than remain in the isolation facility.

"I feel wonderful, 100 percent," Kornfeld told CNN in a video interview on Tuesday. Before being cleared to leave the unit, he described it as a comfortable hospital room. "It's a little weird being in here by myself," he said. "But the nurses come in, the doctors come in. I'm on WhatsApp all the time. It's really amazing how quickly time flies."

The confusion over his test results appears to have been a transatlantic affair. Kornfeld said the nasal swab taken on the ship was tested twice in the Netherlands, with one result coming back negative and the other positive. A further test was carried out after he arrived in the US. David Fitter of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that the initial test received from abroad was inconclusive in its results.

Two other Americans linked to the outbreak are being monitored at a specialist infectious disease unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

According to the latest World Health Organization data published on 13 May, there have been 11 cases linked to the cruise ship outbreak, eight of them confirmed, along with three deaths among passengers or crew. One case remains inconclusive and is undergoing further testing. All passengers and crew have now returned to their home countries, where health authorities are continuing to monitor them.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the international evacuation and quarantine operation as a "success." Tedros said all suspected and confirmed cases have been isolated and managed under strict medical supervision, minimising the risk of further transmission.

The WHO recommends a 42-day quarantine at home or in a facility starting from the day of departure from the ship. The agency expects more cases to arise given the dynamics of spread on a ship and the virus's incubation period, but warns that at the moment there is no sign that this is the start of a larger outbreak.

For Kornfeld, the ordeal appears to be over. He went from caring for sick passengers to being isolated in a biocontainment unit, all because of a fuzzy test result. Now he is out, feeling wonderful, and presumably looking forward to a hospital room without sealed doors. The other 15 Americans in quarantine will have to wait a little longer. And the WHO will keep watching for more cases. But for one doctor, the nightmare has ended – or at least, been downgraded to a WhatsApp-accessible purgatory.

Written by Freya Stensrud