An American national and a French woman evacuated from the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak have tested positive, officials said Monday, as the complex operation to repatriate those on board continued.
The French woman, one of five passengers from France flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel unwell on Sunday night, and “tests came back positive”, said Health Minister Stephanie Rist.
Late Sunday, the US health department said one American national evacuated from the ship had “mild symptoms” and that another had tested positive for the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain that is transmissible between humans.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship set sail in April.
But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and downplayed comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rist said 22 more contact cases had been identified among French nationals, including eight people who had travelled on an April 25 flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 more on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam.
