Science Friday
Hosted by Flora Lichtman
The National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska is housing 18 people exposed to hantavirus, and preparing for possible cases of Ebola exposure.
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Hey, it's Flora and you are listening to Science Friday. Two disease outbreaks are dominating the news. Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Hantavirus, which started spreading on a cruise ship. In the US, there's a one-of-a-kind medical facility that exists just for emergencies like these. It's called the National Quarantine Unit, and it's in Omaha, Nebraska. Americans exposed to dangerous diseases are evacuated there. Right now, 18 Americans from the cruise ship where Hantavirus broke out are in quarantine at that facility in Omaha. And today, we're going behind the scenes with one of the nurses who's worked there for the last 17 years to hear how the facility works, the latest with these travelers exposed
to Hantavirus, and how this facility is preparing for the possibility of Ebola-exposed patients. Angie Vashia is the Director of Emergency Preparedness and Special Pathogens Programs at Nebraska Medicine. Angie, welcome to Science Friday.
Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.
How many Hantavirus-exposed patients do you have right now? And how are they doing?
Yeah, so right now, we have 18 individuals who have been with us since May 11th. And they, you know, all of our individuals remain well. So with quarantine, we're providing monitoring and observation for the potential development of symptoms. And then if those symptoms develop, they would be moved over to our biocontainment unit, which is in our hospital. And so thus far, all of our guests remain well. I think, you know, like most folks that would be in a quarantine situation, people get a little bit stir-crazy after a few days. And so our focus right now on this phase of response is really maintaining mental and physical stimulation opportunities.
And so we're really focusing in on making sure we're supporting holistically what they need to sustain their time here with us, which was, you know, proposed to be 42 days for the full incubation period.
Forty-two days.
Yes.
Wow. That's not a small amount of time.
No, it isn't.
So what is it like there? Should I be picturing a hospital, or a hotel, or some hybrid?
It's definitely a blend of both. So each individual has their own room. And so it's interesting in that we have our rooms set up. They are all along the outer wall of our floor, so that every room has natural sunlight, you know, access to the windows, so you can see out of the building. Each of the rooms has exercise equipment, so either a treadmill, or a bike, free weights, yoga mat, a yoga ball, some stair stepper, you know, blocks. Each of the rooms are at least 300 square feet, and they have, you know, like a full-size bed, en suite bathroom, so kind of what you would expect from a hotel. But then we layered in engineering controls, so all of the rooms have negative pressure, so that no airborne
particles can escape out into the hallway. The hallway is also negative pressure to the general space. All of the floors are sealed seam flooring, and so easily wipeable. So it's kind of a really interesting blend between a hotel room and a hospital room.
Is there room service?
Yeah, that, there is. So because they're not allowed to leave the room, our staff provides everything, including meal delivery, snack delivery, personal items. We also do all of their laundry, so we do that each evening. And then I think, you know, one of the unique things about our facility is that we also have an autoclave on site. So for some of our pathogens that produce category A hazardous substance waste, if people become sick, you need to be able to inactivate that waste prior to shipping it out. And so we have the ability to escalate to those full isolation procedures on this floor, should somebody become ill, prior to being able to move them over to the hospital side.
What does that mean, deactivate the waste?
Yeah, so when you have like Ebola virus disease is actually a great example, or any of the virohumeragic fevers, because they, the virus can persist on surfaces for an extended period of time, and it takes such a low amount of virus to infect someone. So infectious dose is, you know, a big consideration. That waste can't just be sent out to the normal waste streams. And so it goes into the autoclave, and we essentially use steam sterilization to denature the virus so that it is no longer viable. And then it gets packaged up as a category B regulated medical waste and sent for incineration. So it really is to decrease any risk to the downstream workers who would be receiving that waste from our facility.
Let's talk about Ebola. As of this interview, the Trump administration said it plans to send Americans exposed to Ebola to Kenya, rather than bringing them back to one of our facilities here. Have you heard anything about this?
Yeah, so we have been tracking that. So the current strategy to potentially move American citizens who have been exposed to Ebola to Kenya for monitoring and observation is going to require a lot of different strategies to make it successful. So I think it's still in the beginning stages of planning. It's interesting, because I would also note that at this time, the United States is more prepared than it has ever been, has the highest capacity that it's ever had to be able to provide care for individuals within the National Special Pathogen System.
So you have room for them. You could handle both these hantavirus exposed patients and Ebola exposed patients if you needed to?
I would say yes, with a caveat. So we could, in theory, provide quarantine care for two different pathogens simultaneously without any cross contamination, so to speak.
I think for the definitive care piece where people become sick, that's really where we would need to use the National Special Pathogen System. So those 13 regional emerging special pathogen treatment centers. So if folks were here in the quarantine unit and needed biocontainment care, we would be wanting to move those individuals out to the other regional treatment centers so that they could have ready access to those critical care services.
It sounds like a busy time right now. What do you, what happens when you're not busy? Are you prepping?
So that's a, that's a great question. So our team maintains a constant state of readiness. And so we're required through our contracts to be able to activate our unit within eight hours or less. And so we train our team on a quarterly basis. We have over 100 people who voluntarily apply to be on our biocontainment unit, quarantine unit teams, and they come in for training every three months. And then we also participate in assessment and preparedness measures for other hospitals across HHS Region 7, which is Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. And so we collaborate with the health departments on exercises. And we'll do protocol review if, if people reach out and say, here's what we're thinking for a response plan. What guidance do you have?
So we spend a lot of time in our region doing additional preparedness work, which is extremely important because the World Cup is coming and we have games in Kansas City starting June 16th. And so we've been working on that for about a year, making sure that if there's any infectious disease risk, whether intentional or natural, that we're prepared to support not just our own team, but the rest of the region.
Oh, intentional or natural. That's heavy.
It is, yeah. And I think it's, you know, there's, there is a difference in the way that you respond to those types of threats. And so making sure that people have at the forefront of their mind, what does this mean for me? What does it mean for my team? What does it change in the way that we respond? Unfortunately, we do have to look at all of those risk factors when we're preparing for events like this.
Yeah, bioterrorism. I mean, Angie, what calls you to do this kind of work? I mean, healthcare seems stressful generally, but this seems, you know, really high stakes.
Yeah, so you know, I joined our team in 2009. Our unit has been open since 2005. And I really have to give a lot of credit to Dr. Phil Smith, who was the founder of our special pathogen program here at Nebraska. And the way that he led our team and the way that he inspired people was really saying, you know, there was a monkey pox case well before MPOX came in 2022. A small child who got infected from an animal. And the healthcare workers refused to take care of them because they were scared. And there was a very small group of people who stood up and provided that care. And after 9/11, and we had access to additional funding for improving the US capability to respond to intentional threats.
He really framed it as there is no person in the United States who should be treated in a way that we are afraid to give them appropriate care and they suffer an adverse outcome. And so for our team, for me, to be able to have the knowledge and the skills and the ability to provide that care hands-on, frontline, but then also to help others be prepared to provide that care, just really is satisfying and fulfilling. And it, you know, it really is a small group of individuals who want to be in the responsive world because it's unpredictable and it does require a high degree of training and attention to detail. But I feel like for me, I've always been motivated by being able to do things that other people either can't or don't want to do.
And then expanding the field so that we have more people to follow behind us.
It sounds like a calling.
Yeah, I'm fortunate that I have been able to find where I really feel like I can make the most difference while I'm here.
You know, obviously, people, like you're saying, get scared of deadly diseases. What do the people in Omaha make of this center?
So it's interesting. We've done a lot of work since 2005 to build trust and establish relationships with our local community. And you know, throughout Ebola, COVID, MPOX, we responded to loss of fever in Iowa, and now this response. Our local community has shown an outpouring of support. So on multiple times a week, we get a reach out from a local business or a local group asking, you know, what can we do to support you? What can we do to support the guests? We've had sponsored meals. Actually, today Omaha Steaks is here. They're grilling in the parking lot, putting together lunches for the guests and the staff to make sure that they get, you know, the Nebraska nice experience, I guess you could
say. And we've had businesses put together care packages that they've, you know, donated books and local artisan soaps and just a wide variety of products that are unique to Omaha and to Nebraska. And so I think in our immediate Omaha metro area, we have a high degree of support because they know what our capabilities are. I think that's in juxtaposition of what we're seeing on some of the national front where people are asking, you know, why are we bringing people to the middle of the United States? Why Nebraska? You know, what is the thinking behind this type of a strategy? And so being able to reassure people that, you know, our team does train for this, we are ready to be able to provide
care, that we have all of the measures in place to make sure that we have not, we are not posing additional risk to our community, to our state, to our healthcare personnel. I think being able to demonstrate that and be able to stand behind those words with our team makes the public trust of what we're saying.
Angie Vashia is the Director of Emergency Preparedness and Special Pathogens Programs at Nebraska Medicine. Angie, thanks for talking to us today.
Thank you, Flor. I appreciate the time. Good to be on your show.
Thank you for coming on. This episode was produced by Rasha Iridi. Thank you for listening. I'm Flor Lichtman.
Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated