A French woman evacuated from a cruise ship has tested positive for hantavirus, and her health deteriorated overnight in the hospital, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist announced Monday.
The woman was among five French passengers repatriated Sunday to Paris from the MV Hondius. She developed symptoms during the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.
American Passengers Also Affected
One of the 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, while another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday. The flight landed early Monday morning.
The Americans will first be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which houses a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess their close contact with symptomatic individuals and their risk of spreading the virus. The medical center also has a special unit for treating highly infectious diseases, previously used for COVID-19 and Ebola patients.
Evacuation Operations
Passengers began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort continuing into Monday.
The World Health Organization recommended close monitoring of former passengers, and many countries have implemented quarantines. Twenty-two British passengers and crew who tested negative for hantavirus were repatriated via charter flight from Tenerife to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral for clinical assessment. They will undergo an initial 72-hour testing period in a dedicated accommodation block to determine if they can complete a mandatory 45-day isolation at home.
Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the WHO, and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions stated that none of the more than 140 people on the Hondius had shown symptoms. All passengers were escorted from the ship to shore by personnel in protective gear. Planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from over 20 countries in an evacuation effort extending into Monday.
Outbreak Details
Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier were infected.
Public Risk Deemed Low
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the general public should not be worried. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic,” he said Sunday.
Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. However, the Andes virus detected in this outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms typically appear between one and eight weeks after exposure.
WHO recommends that passengers' home countries “have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Maria van Kerkhove, the organization’s top epidemiologist. Numerous countries have announced that their citizens will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation.
