Doctor quarantining at home after being monitored for hantavirus in Omaha

An Oregon doctor has three weeks remaining in his quarantine for hantavirus, but he said it's much better than what he experienced in Omaha.

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Doctor quarantining at home in Oregon after stay for hantavirus in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. —

After contracting hantavirus on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, a doctor was forced to spend weeks inside a UNMC quarantine facility in Omaha.

Dr. Stephen Kornfeld is now isolating inside his Oregon house. He is one of the Americans who left Nebraska Medicine to finish their hantavirus quarantine at home.

He has three weeks remaining in his quarantine, but he said it’s much better than what he experienced in Omaha.

“You felt a little bit like a prisoner. Meals would come haphazardly. Food wasn’t very good. Everything I needed, I had to request,” Kornfeld said. “And outside my house, there’s a car doing 24/7 monitoring.”

Kornfeld cared for the infected patients while aboard the cruise ship. He said he’s grateful for everyone’s support.

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