A French woman and an American national evacuated from the MV Hondius have tested positive for hantavirus, adding new cases to the mv hondius hantavirus outbreak after both left the ship through Tenerife. The French woman was flown to Paris and was in serious condition on Monday, while the American passenger was flown to Nebraska with 16 others.
The French health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said the French woman’s tests came back positive after she disembarked in Tenerife on Sunday. Rist said, “Unfortunately, her symptoms worsened overnight.”
Tenerife evacuations
The French woman started to feel very unwell on Sunday night, after leaving the ship. The American passenger had no symptoms, but the US health department said the passenger had tested positive for the Andes strain, while another American national evacuated from the ship had mild symptoms.
Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon. More than 100 people of 23 nationalities were to be evacuated in less than 48 hours, and Tenerife saw 94 people of 19 different nationalities leave on Sunday alone.
France and Nebraska
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.” Five French passengers disembarked from the ship in Tenerife and were flown to a hospital in Paris on Sunday.
Three passengers from the MV Hondius — a Dutch couple and a German woman — have already died, and health officials have said the risk for global public health is low. The ship departed from Argentina in April, and the current repatriation effort has already taken in 22 more contact cases linked to earlier flights between Saint Helena, Johannesburg and Amsterdam on 25 April.
Andes strain case
The positive test in the United States matters because the Andes strain is the only hantavirus strain transmissible between humans. For passengers leaving Tenerife, the immediate issue is whether their own repatriation and medical checks now follow the same isolation rules that French officials have already applied across the response.
