90-Second Read: Evacuated US and French MV Hondius passengers test positive for Hantavirus

The French woman was one of five French passengers who disembarked from the ship in Tenerife on Sunday before being flown to a hospital in Paris. The US health department said one American national evacuated from the ship had tested positive for the Andes strain, the only Hantavirus strain that is transmissible between humans, and another had "mild symptoms". Three passengers from the MV Hondius, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died and others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. An American passenger who was flown to Nebraska along with 16 others on Sunday evening also tested positive but had no symptoms.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for Hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, from where the ship departed in April. Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already left the ship, plus anyone who may have come into contact with them. The captain of the MV Hondius has praised the crew and passengers for their behaviour on the ship. The French health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said the woman was in a serious condition on Monday.

More than 100 people of 23 nationalities are being evacuated in less than 48 hours, in an operation described by Spanish authorities as "complex" and "unprecedented". It also said the French woman who had developed a fever on the evacuation flight had not had a high temperature when she was examined onboard the MV Hondius. But health officials have said the risk for global public health is low and have played down comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic. Rist said 22 French nationals had been identified as having come into potential contact with the virus, including eight people who had travelled on a 25 April flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 more on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam.

Of the 54 people who remained aboard, 22 passengers and 32 crew, 28 will disembark today and evacuate on two flights to the Netherlands. The six passengers who were due to travel on it, four Australians, one Briton who is resident in Australia, and a New Zealand national, will instead return home via one of the Netherlands flights. The MV Hondius will then depart for the Netherlands with the 26 crew members on Monday evening.