A French woman and an American national evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship which is at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have now tested positive for the virus. The French woman was one of the five French nationals who disembarked from the cruise ship in Tenerife on Sunday. The French health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said on Monday on France Inter that the woman was in a serious condition.
She said that her “condition has unfortunately deteriorated” in the night after she was placed in isolation at Hôpital Bichat in Paris. The health minister added that the five passengers who have been repatriated to France are being treated at the hospital in rooms with air flow systems designed to prevent infection.
She said they are all “of course” in isolation at the hospital and will remain there until further notice for at least 15 days.
Rist said the four other passengers from the ship tested negative but will be re-tested. Health authorities said they have so far identified 22 hantavirus contact cases in France.
One of the 17 US citizens evacuated from the cruise ship has now also tested positive, US officials have confirmed. The passengers took a medical repatriation flight to Nebraska.
The US health department added that another American national who was evacuated from the ship had “mild symptoms.”
Both passengers travelled “in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.” In its statement early on Monday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said all 17 on the flight will “will undergo clinical assessment” in Nebraska.
The statement on X (formerly Twitter) reads: HHS through @ASPRgov and @CDCgov is supporting @StateDept in the repatriation of 17 American citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship affected by the Andes variant of hantavirus. All 17 are currently en route via @StateDept airlift to the United States, with two of the passengers travelling in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.
“One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus. As of now, the airlift will transport passengers to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska before taking the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at its final destination.
“Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition.”
The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning. Spanish authorities then began a controlled evacuation, organising passengers by nationality and transporting them from the ship to the port in smaller boats.
Three people have died in connection with the outbreak, either while on board the MV Hondius or after they had disembarked and travelled elsewhere. The ship had departed from Argentina about a month earlier. In its latest update on May 8, the World Health Organization stated that there was a total of eight reported cases of the virus.
