A French woman and an American man have tested positive for hantavirus after being evacuated from the cruise ship MV Hondius, which has been stranded off Tenerife in the Canary Islands following an outbreak, authorities said.
French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said the French passenger’s condition was worsening and that a new decree would strengthen isolation measures for contacts to help break chains of transmission. So far four other French passengers tested negative and authorities have identified 22 contact cases.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said an American on a repatriation flight had tested “mildly positive” and another US passenger had mild symptoms. Both were being transported in the aircraft’s biocontainment units as a precaution; all 17 MV Hondius passengers on that flight will undergo clinical assessment on arrival in the United States.
The two new cases bring the ship’s confirmed total to 10. The World Health Organization has confirmed two deaths and one probable death linked to the outbreak. As of Friday, four people were hospitalized, with one patient in intensive care in South Africa. Investigations into the source of the outbreak remain under way.
Spanish officials said the evacuation of remaining passengers would be completed with flights to Australia and the Netherlands. One flight will carry six passengers to Australia and another will carry 18 passengers to the Netherlands; both planes may also carry travelers from countries that did not arrange their own repatriation flights.
Hantaviruses are typically transmitted to people from infected rodents, though some strains can rarely spread between people. Symptoms can begin between one and eight weeks after exposure and commonly include headache, fever, chills, gastrointestinal problems and respiratory distress. The outbreak on MV Hondius has been linked to the Andes strain, which can have a high case fatality rate—reported at up to about 40–50 percent, particularly among older patients.
The World Health Organization has recommended a 42-day quarantine period for passengers from the affected cruise. Public health experts have urged calm, noting hantaviruses are far less transmissible than respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency, described the risk to the general public as “extremely low.”
Authorities continue contact tracing, monitoring of disembarked passengers and clinical assessments as part of efforts to contain the outbreak and identify its source.