Hantavirus live updates: WHO hunts for source of virus

Washington health officials Friday night said they were tracking a hantavirus case that is unrelated to the cruise ship outbreak.

The person was infected after exposure to a rodent, the Washington State Department of Health said in a news release. The person was infected with a strain of hantavirus that does not spread person to person, the health department said.

Separately, the department said it is aware of six people that were former cruise ship passengers or exposed to an infected cruise ship passenger on a flight -- part of the 41 people across the country under monitoring for potential infection. None have shown any signs of illness.

-ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud

The two repatriated cruise ship passengers who were being monitored at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta have now been transferred to the quarantine facility in Nebraska, according to Nebraska Medicine.

Now all of the 18 American ship passengers are under monitoring at the Nebraska quarantine unit.

Officials in Ontario County in upstate New York said they're “investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case” involving a Geneva High School student. Geneva is about 45 miles southeast of Rochester.

The Ontario County Public Health Department stressed that the case is not linked to the cruise ship and “there is no risk to the general public.” Hantavirus strains in the U.S. don’t spread from person-to-person, the health department said, and is only “spread through mouse and rodent droppings, especially when urine, feces, or nesting materials become aerosolized during cleaning."

The Geneva City School District said "there is no evidence of risk to other students or staff."

The school district said it's "continuing to work closely with the Ontario County Department of Health and will continue to follow any guidance provided by public health officials."

-ABC News’ Matt Foster

The U.S. currently has no cases of the Andes hantavirus, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a briefing Friday.

The Andes version of hantavirus does not pass easily between people, and requires close, prolonged exposure, said the CDC’s incident manager for hantavirus, Dr. David Fitter. The CDC only recommends testing symptomatic people, Fitter said.

He said anyone with high-risk exposure should follow strict quarantine protocols. He classified high-risk exposure as anyone who was still on the cruise ship between May 5 and May 10, as well as anyone who had close, prolonged contact with someone who has Andes hantavirus, including sitting on a plane near someone with hantavirus.

CDC officials said they will not offer any updates on the conditions of the 16 cruise ship passengers currently in quarantine in Nebraska, including if they are currently symptomatic, citing privacy.

-ABC News’ Eric Strauss