{"id":17930,"date":"2026-05-11T11:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=17930"},"modified":"2026-05-11T12:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:21:54","slug":"french-passenger-tests-positive-for-hantavirus-evacuation-from-cruise-ship-continues-who-sees-no-cause-for-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/french-passenger-tests-positive-for-hantavirus-evacuation-from-cruise-ship-continues-who-sees-no-cause-for-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"French passenger tests positive for Hantavirus: Evacuation from cruise ship continues; WHO sees no cause for panic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">A French woman evacuated from the cruise ship <b data-path-to-node=\"2\" data-index-in-node=\"46\">MV Hondius<\/b> has tested positive for Hantavirus. According to France\u2019s Health Minister, St\u00e9phanie Rist, the patient\u2019s condition worsened overnight after being admitted to the clinic.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">The infected woman was among five French passengers repatriated to Paris from Tenerife, Canary Islands, via a special flight on Sunday. The Minister noted that she began showing symptoms during the flight. The evacuation of passengers from the ship is currently being carried out by military and government aircraft, with all personnel involved wearing full protective suits and respirators. As part of the evacuation, 17 Americans were also transported to Nebraska, USA; one has tested positive for Hantavirus, though the case is currently asymptomatic.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Despite these new cases, the <b data-path-to-node=\"4\" data-index-in-node=\"29\">World Health Organization (WHO)<\/b> maintains that there is no threat to the general public. &#8220;This is not another coronavirus; therefore, the risk to the population remains low. People should not be afraid,&#8221; stated Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">Hantavirus is primarily transmitted via rodents, and human-to-human transmission is rare. However, the outbreak on the cruise ship is likely linked to the so-called <b data-path-to-node=\"5\" data-index-in-node=\"165\">&#8220;Andes virus&#8221;<\/b> strain, which possesses the rare capability of spreading between humans. The incubation period for the virus ranges from one to eight weeks.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO&#8217;s technical lead on COVID-19 and emerging diseases, recommended that evacuated passengers undergo strict monitoring and daily medical check-ups in their respective home countries, either in home isolation or at specialized facilities.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">To date, the outbreak on the MV Hondius has claimed three lives, while five passengers who left the ship earlier have been infected. Although officials from the US, Spain, and the WHO initially stated that none of the more than 140 people remaining on board showed symptoms, the evacuation process and subsequent testing have partially changed the situation.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hantavirus-outbreak-hondius-cruise-ship-df0e7e1fb9c7fd3e4092be06e684f644\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APNEWS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A French woman evacuated from the cruise ship MV Hondius has tested positive for Hantavirus. According to France\u2019s Health Minister, St\u00e9phanie Rist, the patient\u2019s condition worsened overnight after being admitted to the clinic. The infected woman was among five French passengers repatriated to Paris from Tenerife, Canary Islands, via a special flight on Sunday. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1594,1587],"tags":[5401],"class_list":["post-17930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-research","tag-hantavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17933,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17930\/revisions\/17933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}