PARIS – A French woman repatriated from a cruise ship struck by hantavirus was on May 12 in intensive care on a ventilator battling a severe case of the rare disease, a doctor said.
The woman, one of five French passengers flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel very unwell on the night of May 10 and tested positive.
“The patient now has the most severe form of cardiopulmonary presentation,” Dr Xavier Lescure told a press conference at the health ministry.
“She is on an artificial lung and a blood bypass to allow her, we hope, to get through this stage.”
She was older than 65 and had pre-existing conditions, he added, without elaborating.
Three passengers from the Hondius – a Dutch couple and a German woman – have died, while others have fallen sick with the disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
No vaccine or specific treatment exists for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.
But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic. AFP
