French passenger shows hantavirus symptoms during evacuation from cruise ship

A French passenger repatriated from the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius began showing symptoms during an evacuation flight, turning a maritime outbreak into a cross-border test of airline screening, quarantine protocol and public-health coordination.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said one of five French nationals flown out of Tenerife developed symptoms while in the air. All five were placed in strict isolation pending testing, as health authorities raced to separate national evacuees and trace anyone exposed during the cruise ship response. The episode unfolded as passengers were disembarking under heavy precautions at Granadilla Port, with launch boats moving small groups ashore while crews in full protective gear used masks, respirators and disinfectant spraying.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius carried 147 passengers and crew, including 88 passengers and 59 crew members from 23 nationalities. The World Health Organization said seven cases had been identified on board as of May 4, including two laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections and five suspected cases. Three people had died, one patient was critically ill and three had mild symptoms. Illness onset among the reported cases fell between April 6 and April 28, after the voyage began in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and continued through Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island.

Health agencies have been trying to keep the alarm in proportion to the science. WHO says the global public risk is low and that hantavirus is usually acquired through exposure to infected rodents, while Andes hantavirus is the only known strain that can spread person to person, typically after close, prolonged contact. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also assessed the risk to the EU and EEA general population as very low, even as it confirmed the ship’s arrival in Tenerife and the start of successive repatriation flights.

The United States has set up its own quarantine pipeline. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the American public remained extremely low and that it had deployed a team to the Canary Islands to assess exposure risk. Officials planned to fly impacted Americans to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, then transfer them to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska. NBC News reported that 17 American passengers were expected to quarantine there, with any worsening patient potentially moved to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.

Spanish nationals were flown first to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. French passengers followed later, and the evacuation was expected to continue through Monday as authorities monitored whether a shipboard illness with limited person-to-person transmission could be contained once passengers were scattered across multiple countries and medical systems.