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Health officials in Omaha begin interviewing cruise ship passengers exposed to hantavirus.A day after their early morning arrival in Omaha, passengers from a cruise ship that experienced an outbreak of hantavirus were undergoing assessments by a team from the National Quarantine Unit and other public health partners.Fifteen passengers are being housed in the unit, the nation's only federally funded quarantine facility, designed to house an monitor people who are well but may have been exposed to high-consequence infectious diseases.One patient, who was positive for the Andes virus, the strain detected on the ship, but did not have symptoms, is in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.Both units are on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.The assessments include regular symptom monitoring and in-depth interviews with each passenger, which are being led by federal public health partners with assistance from the quarantine unit team, according to an update Tuesday from Nebraska Medicine, UNMC's clinical partner.People are also reading… Health system officials said additional updates would be provided if there were any changes in the passengers' status.The aim of the interviews is to map each passenger's movements on the ship, the Dutch-registered MV Hondius, in order to determine their level of contact with any of the other passengers who were confirmed to have hantavirus.A total of 11 cases had been reported as of Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, nine of which have been confirmed.Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America, AP reported.A total of 18 passengers arrived in Omaha early Monday aboard a U.S.State Department flight.Two — a couple, one of whom had mild symptoms of hantavirus — were flown to a biocontainment unit at Emory University in Atlanta.A handful of top U.S.health officials who spoke at a media briefing Monday at UNMC, as well as Nebraska Gov.Jim Pillen, said everything possible was being done to ensure the well-being of the passengers and the safety of Americans.Hantavirus is carried primarily by rodents.Most strains cannot spread be spread from person to person.But the Andes strain can spread from person to person."Let me be crystal clear: The risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low," said Admiral Brian Christine, assistant secretary for Health with the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, who is a medical doctor."The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic.Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start."