Two passengers, one French and the other American, have tested positive for the Hanta virus on board the cruise ship "MV Hondius", while evacuation and medical monitoring of other passengers continue.
French Health Minister Stephanie Rist announced on Monday that a French woman evacuated from the ship had tested positive for the Hantavirus, noting that her health had deteriorated overnight in the hospital.
She explained that the infected woman was among five French passengers who were returned to Paris on Sunday from the MV Hondus, and that she had shown symptoms of the illness during the flight to France, according to what she told France Inter radio.
In the United States, health officials reported that one of the 17 American passengers airlifted from the ship to Nebraska tested positive for the virus, although he was asymptomatic. The plane arrived at its destination in the early hours of Monday morning.
The American passengers will be transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which includes a federally funded quarantine facility, for a medical evaluation to determine their exposure to infected individuals and assess the likelihood of transmission among them. The center also has a specialized unit for treating highly infectious diseases, which was previously used during the COVID-19 pandemic and with Ebola patients.
The repatriation of the ship's passengers began on Sunday aboard military and government aircraft, after the ship docked in the Canary Islands. The operation involved strict precautionary measures, with passengers accompanied by personnel wearing full protective gear and respirators as they were transferred from the ship to the shore in Tenerife. The repatriation continued until Monday.
The World Health Organization recommended close monitoring of previous passengers, while several countries imposed quarantine measures on returnees.
Earlier, the Spanish Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed that more than 140 people on board the Hondius ship showed no symptoms at the time.
The outbreak resulted in the death of three people and the infection of five others who had left the ship earlier.
Health officials emphasize that the risk of infection remains low, as the hantavirus is typically spread through rodent droppings and does not readily transmit between humans. However, the Andean variant, detected in this outbreak, may be capable of human-to-human transmission in rare cases. Symptoms usually appear between one and eight weeks after exposure to the virus.
