On Sunday, May 11, two American passengers from a luxury Antarctic cruise landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport under extraordinary circumstances.
They had been aboard the MV Hondius, a Dutch expedition ship carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries. What was meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime journey ended with an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus, one of the world’s most dangerous viral diseases.
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After a quarantine period at sea, passengers returned to their home countries. Most American passengers were transported to a federal quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Two were brought to Atlanta for specialized monitoring.
At the airport, they were met by Grady EMS medics specially trained for high-risk transports. They were taken directly to Emory University Hospital’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit (SCDU). The transfer went smoothly.
“Our system worked, our preparedness worked and, most importantly, my teammates performed very, very well,” said Aneesh Mehta, MD, chief of infectious diseases at Emory University Hospital.
“This unit exists for moments exactly like this.”
— Aneesh Mehta, MD
From the outside, Emory Healthcare’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit is unmarked and unassuming.
Inside, it is one of the most sophisticated biocontainment facilities in the world.
Built in 2002 in close collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the SCDU was designed specifically to care for patients with the most dangerous infectious diseases known to medicine.
Along with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Emory is a consortium lead for the National Emerging Special Pathogen Training and Education Center (NETEC), a Congressionally-supported program that drives national preparedness for serious and rare infectious diseases such as Ebola, hantavirus and other high‑risk illnesses.
Through its leadership in NETEC, the expertise developed inside Emory’s SCDU extends far beyond Atlanta, informing national standards for preparedness, training and patient care during high‑risk infectious disease events.
The unit is engineered to protect patients, healthcare workers and the public through multiple layers of containment:
11 patient beds, including three fully equipped ICU rooms
Negative‑pressure patient rooms to keep airflow moving inward
Up to 20 air exchanges per hour, filtered through HEPA systems
Dedicated on‑site clinical laboratory for high‑risk specimens
Strict waste handling protocols, including steam sterilization and incineration
Air‑lock entry zones, moving from clean corridors to anterooms to patient rooms
Before entering a patient room, clinicians put on full personal protective equipment (PPE), including hoods, coveralls and gloves. Every step is monitored by a trained safety partner to ensure precision.
If further assessment, testing or consultation is needed, the CDC and its resources are readily available. Emory's close proximity to the CDC allows teams to collaborate quickly as situations evolve.
Hantavirus is a rare but serious viral disease that can cause severe illness and death. Key facts to know:
There are two primary types of hantavirus:
Fatality rates for severe disease can exceed 35%
There is no FDA‑approved antiviral treatment
Most hantaviruses spread through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.
The Andes strain, responsible for the MV Hondius outbreak, is unique:
It is the only known hantavirus capable of person‑to‑person transmission
Spread typically requires close contact or exposure to bodily fluids
Most of the time, the SCDU is not actively caring for patients. But the work never stops.
The team conducts:
Since the Ebola outbreak in 2014, more than 60 groups have visited the unit, including scientists, government officials and international health ministers.
Today, there are 13 federally designated biocontainment units across the United States. That national network exists largely because of lessons learned at Emory.
In the summer of 2014, Emory became the first hospital in the United States to care for patients with Ebola virus disease.
Four patients were admitted. All four survived.
The clinicians who staffed the unit became known as “Team Ebola.” Alongside advanced intensive care, they provided something equally critical: reassurance, connection and compassion.
At the time, the prevailing belief was that patients with advanced Ebola could not survive. Emory’s team challenged that assumption by delivering evidence‑based ICU care.
They also learned critical lessons about infection control, particularly the precise process of putting on and removing PPE. Those lessons reshaped safety protocols worldwide.
“If we could bring that level of precision into everyday care, what could it change?”
— Colleen Kraft, MD
The experience caring for Ebola patients prompted a broader shift in how Emory approached infection prevention.
Led by Michael Konomos, the medical illustration team at Emory University School of Medicine developed step‑by‑step PPE graphics and training videos that were adopted nationally and internationally. These tools helped standardize how healthcare workers put on and remove protective equipment, reducing risk and improving safety.
The CDC later updated its own PPE guidance based on what was learned at Emory. Medical Director of the SCDU Colleen Kraft, MD, describes that period as “the beginning of a health care revolution.”
When COVID‑19 arrived in early 2020, the Serious Communicable Diseases Unit — built for rare, high‑consequence pathogens, not global pandemics — was activated for the earliest cases.
As patient volumes surged globally, the SCDU’s greatest contribution came through knowledge sharing. Through NETEC, the team developed PPE guidance, training and a web‑based app to support healthcare settings of every type.
Those resources were used by health systems across the United States and in countries including Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia and South Africa, helping protect millions of healthcare workers during the pandemic.
Without specialized isolation units like the SCDU, the risk of wider spread from even a small number of patients would be far greater.
Beyond patient care, the unit has driven:
But the SCDU’s primary mission remains unchanged.
When the call comes saying a patient is on the way, the disease may be highly infectious and lethal, and the situation frightening. But inside a quiet, unmarked unit at Emory, a team will already be prepared and ready.
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