An American woman who may have been exposed to hantavirus on board the MV Hondius cruise ship is now being forced to quarantine at a facility in Omaha, Nebraska.

Angela Perryman, 47, anticipated having to stay at the National Quarantine Unit for a short time after arriving last week, but on Monday she was served with a federal order to remain quarantined for at least two more weeks, she shared with The New York Times.

The order mandates that Perryman remains in the facility until May 31, which would be a total of 21 days after her arrival. Officials told her that any attempts to leave could result in law enforcement involvement, she said.

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“They won’t let us isolate at home,” Perryman, who lives in Ecuador but has a home in South Florida, told the news outlet. “We’re being kept in a secured facility and threatened if we try to leave.”

The woman shared that she received a negative hantavirus test result and is not experiencing symptoms. However, she said she did briefly speak with a passenger who later died from the disease.

The federal order, which the passenger shared with the Times, states that it could “constitute a probable source of infection to other people” if Perryman were to leave the facility to travel to another state.

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After receiving a medical review within 72 hours, Perryman was told she can appeal the order. She told the Times that she plans to take legal action.

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The quarantine unit includes 20 single-occupancy rooms with negative air pressure systems and en suite bathroom facilities, along with exercise equipment and Wi-Fi connectivity, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security website.

The quarantine order — issued under federal public health authority — was reportedly approved by Jay Bhattacharya, the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC requesting comment.

Including Perryman, a total of 18 American passengers from the MV Hondius have been monitored at the quarantine unit since last week.

Seven other passengers who left the ship and returned home prior to the outbreak’s discovery are being monitored by their state and local health departments, per the CDC.

“The reason they’re watching these passengers so carefully is that the incubation period can be very long — up to six weeks — and when symptoms hit, patients can deteriorate very rapidly,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said during a recent episode of “The Faulkner Focus.”

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“This is not something that spreads easily like COVID, but because the Andes strain has rare person-to-person transmission, public health officials are being extremely cautious,” he added.

At least three people linked to the outbreak aboard the ship have died, while additional passengers have been sickened, according to the World Health Organization.

“This is not something that spreads easily like COVID, but because the Andes strain has rare person-to-person transmission, public health officials are being extremely cautious.”

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The federal government last imposed a large-scale quarantine order in January 2020, when nearly 200 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. They were required to remain in isolation for two weeks at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California, per the CDC.

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“Typically, we don’t hold people against their will unless there is no alternative,” Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the pandemic center at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told The Times.

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Australia will receive a $5 million federal grant to launch a pioneering research team for children’s health.

The grant was announced at MCRI’s 40th anniversary gala in Melbourne on Saturday night.

“For 40 years, MCRI has been a global leader in children’s health research,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told guests at the gala, which was attended by 300 of Australia’s most esteemed medical experts, political leaders, philanthropists and sports luminaries.

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“My government is proud to partner with MCRI, so our world-leading researchers have the best opportunities to support healthier childhoods for Australians now and into the future.”

The $5 million will directly support medical research aimed at preventing numerous childhood conditions, including obesity, heart disease, mental health issues and disabilities.

Also announced at the gala, a lead donation from Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch will launch the Horizon Fund — a permanent endowment for MCRI aimed at funding long-term children’s health research and future medical breakthroughs.

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The goal is for the fund to raise between $50 million and $100 million in its first year and to reach $200 million within five years.

The fund is designed to back researchers’ immediate priorities while safeguarding long-term capital for future medical breakthroughs in children’s health.

In 2020, the Murdochs donated $5 million to establish a perpetual fellowship supporting leading researchers in fields including stem cell technology and genomic precision medicine.

Co-founded in 1986 by philanthropist and child health advocate Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and pediatrician and genetics pioneer Professor David Danks, MCRI comprises 1,800 scientists, researchers and clinicians.

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“Dame Elisabeth’s leadership, along with her values, shaped both the direction and the ethos of the Institute we were to become – for all children to live a healthy and fulfilled life,” said Sarah Murdoch, who is Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s granddaughter-in-law and MCRI’s global ambassador and board co-chair. 

“With the generosity of a remarkable group of founding donors alongside the Murdoch family – Sir Jack Brockhoff, the Miller family, and The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust – the foundations were laid for an Institute designed to bring our brightest minds, to serve all children, not only in that moment, but for generations to come,” Ms. Murdoch added.

“I see what is possible when foresight, science, commitment, collaboration and heartfelt generosity come together,” she emphasized.

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“Because behind every breakthrough is a child — a family desperate for answers. A future changed because of the commitment by so many.”

MCRI Director Kathryn North expressed appreciation at the gala to the prime minister for the $5 million grant.

“From the beginning, MCRI has been guided by a simple but powerful purpose: to give all children the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilled life,” North said.

“It reflects a belief that good health is the foundation for a full life, and that opportunity should never be limited by circumstance.”

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Professor North mentioned the Institute’s focus on developing therapies for previously incurable diseases.

“We are harnessing the power of human stem cell technologies to grow heart patches, functional mini kidneys, blood and immune cells … to better understand disease, and to develop regenerative therapies using a patient’s own stem cells to replace organ transplants and the risk of rejection,” she said.

The Institute’s next challenge, North said, is to address chronic conditions like asthma, obesity, allergies and mental health conditions that can persist for decades.

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“These are big problems that will require significant and ongoing support,” she said. “Through our work globally, we are helping communities raise their expectations to both deliver and receive the sort of healthcare we take for granted.”

“Our ambition now is to translate these partnerships into population-scale solutions that improve the lives of millions of children worldwide,” North added. “This is not simply the next chapter for MCRI – it is the work of building the future of children’s health.”

A new drug for pancreatic cancer is showing promise in early testing.

Daraxonrasib is a daily pill designed to block cancer signals linked to the RAS gene. It has now finished an early-stage clinical trial — the first time it was tested in people — to evaluate both its safety and effectiveness.

The clinical trial, led by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tested the drug in 168 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer whose tumors had mutations in the RAS gene. All study participants had previously received at least one chemotherapy treatment.

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The drug is designed to block multiple active cancer signals that help tumor cells grow. This is especially important because more than 90% of pancreatic cancers carry these harmful mutations, researchers said.

Existing and older drugs that target RAS mutations only work on certain types that are uncommon in pancreatic cancer, such as KRAS mutations.

At the 300-milligram dose — the amount that will be used in larger phase 3 trials — about 30% of patients saw a positive response, researchers noted. Overall, about 90% of patients had their cancer either shrink or stop getting worse.

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There were some side effects reported — most commonly rash, mouth inflammation, nausea and diarrhea.

Lead investigator Dr. Brian Wolpin, director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber, commented in a press release statement that this development could change the future of cancer care.

“If supported by data from future clinical trials, daraxonrasib would be a targeted therapy relevant to nearly all patients with advanced pancreatic cancer,” he said.

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“This trial provides the first published data showing the safety and broad activity of a RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitor in pancreatic cancer,” Wolpin went on. “If it proves effective in larger clinical trials, it would signify a substantial shift in how this disease is treated.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, the researcher claimed that daraxonrasib represents “one of the most promising therapy advances we’ve seen in pancreatic cancer.”

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This is especially significant since pancreatic cancer has had “very few effective therapies” in the past, Wolpin noted.

“The study also showed disease control in approximately 90% of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, which is extremely exciting,” he added.

Wolpin noted that while side effects were common, most patients were able to tolerate treatment with “supportive care measures, and very few patients needed to stop therapy due to side effects.”

As this was a phase 1/2 study, it does not “definitively prove” the superiority of daraxonrasib compared to chemotherapy, Wolpin added.

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“The study did not include a randomized control arm that directly compared daraxonrasib with chemotherapy,” he said. “That being said, the results for daraxonrasib looked substantially better than what we have seen in prior clinical trials of chemotherapy in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer.”

It also remains unclear how the drug may perform earlier in the disease, as the trial included patients who had already received prior treatments.

For patients and families affected by pancreatic cancer, Wolpin noted that daraxonrasib signals “real momentum” toward effective treatments, but it is still investigational and is not a cure.

“Pancreatic cancer remains a challenging disease, and additional research is needed to determine how best to sequence or combine therapies to provide the most durable responses and cures,” he said.

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Brian Slomovitz, director of gynecologic oncology and co-chair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, applauded this development in a separate interview with Fox News Digital.

“We are anxiously awaiting the upcoming plenary presentation of RASolute 302 at the ASCO meeting later this month,” said the expert, who was not involved in the study. “Greater than 90% of pancreatic cancers have activation of kRAS, which is a major factor in the development and progression of these cancers.” 

“Doubling the survival time in pretreated patients is unprecedented.”

“If the full dataset results that will be reported later this month confirm what was earlier released, I believe this will be one of the most important breakthroughs in all solid tumors,” Slomovitz went on. “Doubling the survival time in pretreated patients is unprecedented.”

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The doctor added that the “magnitude of benefit” could “reshape the treatment landscape” and “establish a new standard of care.”

“We will need to evaluate the full dataset for efficacy and safety,” Slomovitz added. “I am more than cautiously optimistic, and I am truly excited for our patients and their families that suffer from this dreadful disease.”