{"id":15559,"date":"2026-05-11T07:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/french-evacuee-from-hantavirus-hit-ship-tests-positive-health-minister-says-france-24\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:15:06","slug":"french-evacuee-from-hantavirus-hit-ship-tests-positive-health-minister-says-france-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/french-evacuee-from-hantavirus-hit-ship-tests-positive-health-minister-says-france-24\/","title":{"rendered":"French evacuee from hantavirus-hit ship tests positive, health minister says &#8211; France 24"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Headings<br \/>                                         A French national evacuated from a luxury cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak tested positive for the virus, the French health minister said Monday. Four other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will be re-tested, the minister added.                <br \/><span class=\"m-pub-dates__date\">Issued on: <time datetime=\"2026-05-11T06:45:27+00:00\" pubdate=\"pubdate\">11\/05\/2026 &#8211; 08:45<\/time><\/span><span class=\"m-pub-dates__date\">Modified: <time datetime=\"2026-05-11T06:56:28+00:00\">11\/05\/2026 &#8211; 08:56<\/time><\/span><br \/>France on Monday reported its first case of hantavirus when a French national aboard a virus-linked ship tested positive for the disease, said French Health Minister St\u00e9phanie Rist.<br \/>The woman, one of five French passengers flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel very unwell on Sunday night and &#8220;tests came back positive&#8221;, Rist told the France Inter radio broadcaster.<br \/>The four other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will be re-tested, she added. Health authorities said they have so far identified 22 hantavirus contact cases in France.\u00a0<br \/>The operation to repatriate passengers of the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/hantavirus\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">hantavirus<\/a> outbreak continued into Monday, as US officials on Sunday said an American had tested positive for the virus.<br \/>Three passengers from the MV Hondius\u00a0\u2013 a Dutch couple and a German woman\u00a0\u2013 have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.<br \/>No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/argentina\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Argentina<\/a>, where the ship departed in April.<br \/>But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.<br \/><span class=\"a-read-more__label\">Read more<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/health\/20260508-hantavirus-outbreak-risk-to-public-is-absolutely-low-who-says\" target=\"_self\" class=\"a-read-more__link\">Hantavirus outbreak risk to public is &#8216;absolutely low&#8217;, WHO says<\/a><br \/>The operation evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced on Tenerife, in Spain&#8217;s Canary Islands.<br \/>Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship&#8217;s nearly 150 passengers and crew, which include 23 nationalities, would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon.<br \/>The ship is expected to depart for the Netherlands with about 30 crew members at 7:00pm (18:00 GMT) on Monday.<br \/>Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel on Sunday to reach the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife, AFP journalists saw.<br \/>They boarded Spanish army buses and travelled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy before boarding their repatriation flights.<br \/>A plane arrived in the Netherlands with dozens of people, including Belgian, Greek, German, Guatemalan and Argentine citizens, while flights for Canadian, Turkish, British, Irish and US nationals also left.<br \/>Canary Islands authorities have warned that the operation must be completed by Monday, when adverse weather conditions will force the ship to leave.<br \/>The Atlantic archipelago&#8217;s regional government has consistently resisted taking in the ship, which was only authorised to anchor offshore, instead of docking in the port when it arrived early on Sunday morning.<br \/>The central government has insisted there will be no contact with the population in Tenerife.<br \/>The World Health Organization recommends a 42-day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/quarantine\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">quarantine<\/a> and &#8220;active follow-up&#8221;, including daily checks for symptoms such as fever, the UN body&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/epidemic\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">epidemic<\/a> and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, said in Geneva.<br \/><span class=\"a-read-more__label\">Watch more<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tv-shows\/down-to-earth\/20260504-what-is-hantavirus-and-how-does-it-spread\" target=\"_self\" class=\"a-read-more__link\">What is hantavirus and how does it spread?<\/a><br \/>Greece&#8217;s health ministry said a Greek male evacuee would spend 45 days in mandatory hospital quarantine in Athens, while 14 Spanish citizens will also isolate at a military hospital in Madrid.<br \/>A plane carrying 20 UK citizens who were aboard the ship arrived in Manchester in northwest England on Sunday. Officials said the group would be taken to a hospital near Liverpool for tests and about 72 hours of quarantine.<br \/>But a top US health official said the 17 American passengers would not necessarily be quarantined at a specialised centre in the state of Nebraska.<br \/>Depending on the estimated risk, passengers can choose to go home &#8220;without exposing other people on the way&#8221;, said Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<br \/>WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was on Tenerife to help supervise the evacuations, said that policy &#8220;may have risks&#8221;.<br \/>The group was expected to land in Omaha early Monday morning, said a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center.<br \/>The only hantavirus type that is transmissible between humans\u00a0\u2013 the Andes virus\u00a0\u2013 has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern.<br \/>The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde, where three infected people were evacuated to Europe earlier in the week.<br \/>The WHO believes the first infection occurred before the start of the expedition, followed by transmission between humans onboard the vessel.<br \/>But Argentine provincial health official Juan Petrina has said there was an &#8220;almost zero chance&#8221; the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus&#8217;s weeks-long incubation period, among other factors.<br \/>Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked, as well as anyone who may have come into contact with them.<br \/><em>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/em><br \/><span class=\"a-section-color\"><\/span><span class=\"a-section-title__label\">Read next<\/span><br \/><span class=\"a-section-color\"><\/span><span class=\"a-section-title__label\">Today&#039;s top stories<\/span><br \/><span class=\"a-section-color\"><\/span><span class=\"a-section-title__label\">Most read<\/span><br \/>             \u00a9 2026 Copyright France 24 &#8211; All rights reserved. France 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites. Audience ratings certified by ACPM.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acpm.fr\/Support-Numerique\/site\/france24-com\" class=\"a-brand-logo a-svg a-svg--logo-acpm\" hreflang=\"fr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"ACPM\" lang=\"fr\">    ACPM<\/a>         <br \/>The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiuwFBVV95cUxNdkpQemowaUFLdEUtRmwzc1JHbWlsbm02b1ZSMXg3V2RMV1BwS3FJcGt4aks0c2VVUDZxd3J6YzN3eDRjdG9xcFhXR2ZEM0MwdlZFVlNsUlEtQmdZMl9jajRjYjFMRTJkZUtkN01qMTQ0eGNDcmNtblduRWR5TmZnSzlkbnU1VXBNcWp3VVM0aWVhdXVxTDFnM0FOV191dUZLQTNPTGFmSm1LNXZDUzNJQkhPa0tHZTNJNWhF?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Headings A French national evacuated from a luxury cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak tested positive for the virus, the French health minister said Monday. Four other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will be re-tested, the minister added. Issued on: 11\/05\/2026 &#8211; 08:45Modified: 11\/05\/2026 &#8211; 08:56France on Monday reported its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}