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.
Three passengers from the ship, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
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 was low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
