{"id":4087,"date":"2026-05-11T11:32:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=4087"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:32:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:32:30","slug":"2-passengers-test-positive-for-hantavirus-as-a-third-shows-symptoms-after-cruise-ship-evacuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=4087","title":{"rendered":"2 passengers test positive for hantavirus as a third shows symptoms after cruise ship evacuation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MIKE CORDER<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 A French woman and an American tested positive for the hantavirus, as nations around the world scrambled Monday to repatriate passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak and quarantine or isolate them.<\/p>

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Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that was continuing Monday.<\/p>\n

It is the first-ever case of a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness. So far three cruise ship passengers have died, but health authorities continue to stress that the risk to the broader public is low.<\/p>\n

The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. The woman was among five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.<\/p>\n

One of 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday. The flight landed in the early hours of Monday morning and passengers were transferred to awaiting buses and driven away from the airport.<\/p>\n

The Americans would first be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,\u201d said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network that will help care for the passengers.<\/p>

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The university medical center also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.<\/p>\n

The WHO recommended close monitoring of the former passengers, and many countries quarantined them.<\/p>\n

Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who were then on the Hondius had shown symptoms of the virus.<\/p>

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All of the passengers were escorted Sunday from the ship to shore by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks. The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was running into Monday.<\/p>

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Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier were infected.<\/p>\n