The international effort to contain a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship intensified Monday as a French woman and an American passenger tested positive for the virus. The new cases come as nations scramble to fly their citizens home from Spain’s Canary Islands under strict quarantine protocols.
The French woman, one of five passengers who returned to Paris on Sunday, saw her condition worsen overnight after being hospitalized. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter that the woman began showing symptoms during her repatriation flight.
Meanwhile, a flight carrying 17 American passengers landed at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday morning. U.S. health officials confirmed that one passenger tested positive for hantavirus despite showing no symptoms, while another passenger has developed mild symptoms.
READ: CDC Triggers Emergency Response As Hantavirus Cruise Nears Spain
“One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for Nebraska Medicine. The biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is the same facility previously used to treat Ebola and COVID-19 patients.
The evacuation of the ship, which began Sunday morning in Tenerife, continued into Monday. Personnel in full-body hazmat suits and respirators escorted travelers from the vessel to waiting government and military aircraft. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, noted that this is the first recorded hantavirus outbreak to ever occur on a cruise ship.
To date, the outbreak has resulted in three fatalities: a Dutch couple and a German woman. Five other individuals who left the ship earlier in its journey have also been infected. Despite the new positive tests, health authorities maintain that the threat to the general public is minimal.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who traveled to the Canary Islands to oversee the operation, reiterated that the virus does not pose a pandemic-level threat.
“This is not another COVID,” Tedros said during a briefing. “The risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”
Hantavirus is traditionally spread through contact with rodent droppings or saliva. However, this specific outbreak involves the Andes strain, which is known for its rare ability to spread through human-to-human contact.
Symptoms typically appear between one and eight weeks after exposure and often include fever, muscle aches, and chills.
Once the remaining passengers and crew are evacuated, the MV Hondius will depart for Rotterdam in the Netherlands with a skeleton crew. Spanish authorities confirmed the ship will undergo a deep disinfection process upon its arrival.
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