2 passengers test positive for hantavirus after deadly outbreak on cruise ship

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'I've witnessed your caring, your unity and quiet strength amongst everybody on board'

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Nations around the world on Monday repatriated passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and quarantined or isolated them, including a French woman and an American who tested positive.

Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travellers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that continued Monday.

Three cruise ship passengers have died, and there are at least six confirmed hantavirus cases, according to the World Health Organization. The lab results of the American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday.

Health authorities say the risk to the broader public is low from the first-ever hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.

The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message Monday praising passengers and crew for their perseverance and calling for respect for their privacy.

“I’ve witnessed your caring, your unity and quiet strength amongst everybody on board -- guests and crew alike -- and I must commend my crew for the courage and the selfless resolve that they showed time and again in the most difficult moments,” he said. “I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike.”

New cases in France, United States

The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. The woman was among five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.

One of 18 passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.

After landing in Nebraska early Monday, the American passengers were being taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility. Once there, they were being assessed to determine whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.

“The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network that will help care for the passengers.

The university medical centre also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.

WHO recommends close monitoring of former passengers

The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was due to wrap up on Monday.

A Dutch plane expected to reach Tenerife Monday afternoon will carry passengers that were previously going to be evacuated on a plane sent by Australia, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said. On Monday, 54 passengers and crew remained on the ship, of which 22 were expected to disembark, while the remaining 32 will remain on the ship as it returns to the Netherlands.

South African health authorities said on Monday that the condition of a British man admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg and being treated for hantavirus was gradually improving. He was evacuated from the ship on April 27 after becoming ill.

The Hondius left the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia on April 1 and a Dutch passenger died on board April 11. It wasn’t until early May that the World Health Organization said it was reacting to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which by that time was off the West African island nation of Cape Verde.

Health officials say risk to public is low

Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms -- which can include fever, chills and muscle aches -- usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”

WHO is recommending that passengers’ home countries “have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

Numerous countries have said their people will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation.

The ship’s captain, Dobrogowski, said his thoughts “are with the ones that are no longer with us, and whatever I say will not ease this loss, but I’d like you to know that they are with us every day in our hearts and our thoughts.”

Mike Corder, The Associated Press

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed reporting.