PARIS/WASHINGTON: France’s health minister said Thursday that 26 people in France identified as close contacts of hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship had tested negative for the illness.
Dutch authorities said that all people who arrived in the Netherlands on evacuation flights from the ship this week have also tested negative.
Twenty-six people are in hospital isolation in France, including 22 identified as close contacts of a Dutch woman on the MV Hondius that was at the center of an international alert for the rare disease typically transmitted by rodents.
French doctors are monitoring four others who were on the ship, while a fifth French passenger tested positive for hantavirus and is in serious condition in a French hospital.
“As of today, all close contacts of a person who tested positive for hantavirus, present in France, have tested negative, without exception,” said Health Minister Stephanie Rist on X.
Twenty-two of the individuals in France were on a flight from the Atlantic island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg, or on a Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight that a Dutch passenger was to have taken. The Dutch woman was taken off the flight and died in a South African hospital.
The 26 individuals will be tested three times a week as a precautionary measure, Rist said.
Globally three people from the Hondius have died, six are confirmed to have hantavirus, there is one probable case and one US passenger had symptoms but recorded a negative test, according to a count from official figures.
Health authorities have said there is a low risk to the wider public.
Meanwhile, the European Union said it would step up the exchange of information between its 27 members states to better combat hantavirus. France on Tuesday called for “closer coordination” on EU health protocols.
Moreover, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 41 people are currently being monitored for hantavirus in the country, most of whom should stay at home and avoid people during the 42-day monitoring period.
The 41 people come from three main groups, said Dr. David Fitter, the incident manager for the CDC’s hantavirus response.
