France has confirmed that a passenger who was flown back to France Sunday from a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak has tested positive and several other contact cases are being isolated. The health ministry says France is equipped to handle an increase in cases.
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Health Minister Stéphanie Rist confirmed that one of the five French passengers flown back from the MV Hondius cruise ship at the centre of the outbreak tested positive after exhibiting symptoms on Sunday.
Her condition “has unfortunately deteriorated overnight”, she said on France Inter radio Monday.
There are no vaccines or specific treatments for the Andes hantavirus, a rare disease that usually spread among rodents. It is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.
The World Health Organization recommends a 42-day quarantine and “active follow-up,” including daily checks for symptoms, such as fever.
The other four French passengers have tested negative, but will remain in hospital for at least two weeks.
Health officials have identified 22 contact cases in France – passengers on two flights that a Dutch woman, who has since died from the virus, was on: one between St Helena and Johannesburg, South Africa, and another between Johannesburg and Amsterdam.
They have been asked to contact health authorities to be isolated. A decree published Monday to regulate the health protocol “allows us to tighten these isolations”, Rist said.
Well prepared
She confirmed that France has enough surgical and FFP masks, tests and medications to treat symptoms of hantavirus to manage a potential increase in cases.
“I have obviously requested an inventory to confirm that we have enough,” she said on France Inter radio Monday, without giving specific numbers.
US officials announced on Sunday that an American who left the ship had tested positive for the virus.
There were eight suspected cases of the disease on the Dutch-flagged ship, six of which were confirmed, and three passengers died.
A complex repatriation operation from the Canary Islands on Sunday flew out 94 passengers and crew of 19 different nationalities.
Two more repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands are planned on Monday to complete the evacuation of most of the almost 150 passengers and crew.
After refuelling, the ship is scheduled to depart for the Netherlands at 7:00 pm local time, with a skeleton crew.
Health officials have insisted that the risk to global public health is low and have played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
(with newswires)
