France’s has admitted it is currently not known if the circulating strain of hantavirus has mutated as one of the country’s nationals who disembarked the cruise ship is said to be in a serious condition. Health minister Stephanie Rist admitted “there are things we don’t know,” adding: “We do not yet have the complete sequence of the virus… We cannot be certain that this virus has not yet mutated.”
Her admission came as the French woman was one of the five nationals from the country who disembarked from the MV Hondius cruise ship in Tenerife on Sunday. Rist said on Monday that the woman was in a serious condition. She also said the four other passengers from the ship tested negative but will be re-tested. Health authorities said they have so far identified 22 hantavirus contact cases in France.
One of the 17 US citizens evacuated from the cruise ship has now also tested positive, US officials have confirmed. The passengers have taken a medical repatriation flight to Nebraska.
The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning. Spanish authorities then began a controlled evacuation, organising passengers by nationality and transporting them from the ship to the port in smaller boats.
Twenty British nationals who were on board the MV Hondius, together with a German who is a UK resident and a Japanese passenger, were taken to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral on Sunday after the ship docked in Tenerife.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Monday evening that clinical assessments and testing at the hospital were well under way.
Strict infection control measures were in place throughout the journey to Arrowe Park, with passengers, crew, drivers and medical teams all wearing personal protective equipment such as face masks.
The UKHSA said strict measures remain in place at the hospital. Another British national has hantavirus and is isolating where he lives on the remote South Atlantic Island of Tristan da Cunha.
Over the weekend, six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and an Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade were parachuted on to Tristan da Cunha to help care for him.
