The international effort to contain a deadly hantavirus outbreak moved into a critical new phase Monday as a French woman and an American passenger tested positive for the virus. The confirmed cases emerged as nations executed strict quarantine protocols for passengers returning from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which docked in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that among the 17 Americans who remained aboard the vessel until it reached Tenerife, one tested positive for hantavirus while asymptomatic. A second American is currently experiencing mild symptoms.
Upon landing in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday morning, the group was met by specialized medical teams. The passenger who tested positive was taken directly to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, a high-level facility previously used for Ebola patients.
READ: CDC Triggers Emergency Response As Hantavirus Cruise Nears Spain
The remaining Americans will stay at the National Quarantine Unit to evaluate their risk levels and determine if they had close contact with symptomatic individuals.
In France, a woman who was among five repatriated citizens also tested positive and is in strict isolation, according to French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist noted that the woman’s health worsened in the hospital overnight after she first showed symptoms during her flight to Paris.
Despite the positive tests, infectious disease experts are clarifying that the virus behaves differently than other recent global health threats.
“The way this virus transmits is not the same as the flu or COVID — these viruses affect the upper airways, mainly, so speaking and coughing can easily transmit it,” said Nicole M. Iovine, M.D., Ph.D., chief epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UF Health Shands Hospital. “The hantavirus and the Andes virus tend to infect very deep in the lungs, so it is not as easily transmitted through the air.”
This biological distinction is a primary reason why World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is on-site in Tenerife, continues to stress that the risk to the general public remains low. “This is not another COVID,” Tedros said. “They shouldn’t be scared and they shouldn’t panic.”
The outbreak, which is the first of its kind ever recorded on a cruise ship, has claimed three lives so far: a Dutch couple and a German woman.
The evacuation in Tenerife involved personnel in full-body protective gear and respirators escorting passengers from more than 20 countries to military and government aircraft. Once the evacuation is complete, a skeleton crew will sail the MV Hondius to Rotterdam for a professional deep-cleaning and disinfection.
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