French and US evacuees test positive on Hantavirus Cruise Ship Australia
Two evacuees from the MV Hondius tested positive for hantavirus after leaving the ship, including a French woman who was flown to Paris and an American passenger sent to Nebraska. The cases emerged after personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks began escorting travellers off the vessel in Tenerife on Sunday, during the hantavirus cruise ship australia evacuation.
Paris and Nebraska
Stéphanie Rist, France’s health minister, said the French woman was in a serious condition on Monday and had tested positive. Rist told France Inter radio: "Unfortunately, her symptoms worsened overnight." The woman started to feel very unwell on Sunday night and her symptoms worsened overnight, then she was treated in a specialised infectious diseases unit of a hospital in Paris on Monday.
An American passenger was flown to Nebraska with 16 others on Sunday evening and tested positive but had no symptoms. The US health department said one American national evacuated from the ship had tested positive for the Andes strain, while another American national evacuated from the ship had mild symptoms.
Tenerife evacuation
Spain’s health ministry said passengers underwent a health check and had their temperatures taken when the ship arrived off Tenerife on Sunday. The ministry also said the French woman had not had a high temperature when she was examined onboard the MV Hondius. Five French passengers disembarked in Tenerife, and more than 100 people of 23 nationalities were being evacuated in less than 48 hours.
Spanish authorities described the evacuation operation as complex and unprecedented. The ship departed from Argentina in April, and health officials have said the outbreak was deadly and rare, with the virus usually spreading among rodents. Officials also said no vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus.
French contact tracing
Rist said 22 French nationals had been identified as having come into potential contact with the virus. She said eight of those French nationals had travelled on a 25 April flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 others had travelled on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam. The Dutch woman who died was on the flight to Johannesburg and later briefly boarded a flight to Amsterdam before disembarking before takeoff.
Three passengers from the MV Hondius, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died. Maud Bregeon, the French government spokesperson, said: "We’re following the situation with the greatest vigilance, on the basis that it is a virus that we know, that a 42-day isolation period has been decided and the objective remains the same: protecting the French people."
