French woman tests positive for Andes hantavirus after cruise evacuation

A French woman evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius tested positive for the Andes hantavirus after returning to France. Authorities isolated close contacts and placed passengers under medical supervision as officials monitored the situation and strengthened preventive health measures

Paris: A French woman who traveled aboard the Hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius tested positive for the Andes hantavirus during her return to France, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday.

The woman was among five French nationals evacuated from the cruise ship and repatriated to France on Sunday, developing symptoms during the repatriation flight.

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The woman’s condition worsened overnight and she was transferred to a specialised infectious disease hospital for treatment, Rist said.

The minister also announced that 22 close contacts of hantavirus cases had been identified in France and ordered to isolate.

On Sunday, five French nationals who had been aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius returned to France, with one of them developing symptoms during the repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu had said.

The five French passengers arrived in France on Sunday afternoon aboard a medical evacuation flight and were immediately placed under strict isolation until further notice, Lecornu had said on social media platform X.

He had added that they were receiving medical care and would undergo tests and health assessments.

Lecornu had also said that a decree would be issued later on Sunday to introduce appropriate isolation measures for close contacts in order to protect the general population.

According to the World Health Organization, Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses that naturally infect rodents and are occasionally transmitted to humans. Infection in people can result in severe illness and often death, although the diseases vary by type of virus and geographical location. In the Americas, infection has been known to lead to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a rapidly progressive condition affecting the lungs and heart, while in Europe and Asia hantaviruses have been known to cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which primarily affects the kidneys and blood vessels.

While there is no specific treatment that cures hantavirus diseases, early supportive medical care is key to improve survival and focuses on close clinical monitoring and management of respiratory, cardiac and kidney complications. Prevention depends largely on reducing contacts between people and infected rodents.

Transmission of hantaviruses to humans occurs from contact with contaminated urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents. Infection may also occur, although less commonly, through rodent bites. Activities that involve contact with rodents such as cleaning enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces, farming, forestry work and sleeping in rodent-infested dwellings increase exposure risk.