A French woman repatriated from a cruise ship struck by hantavirus has tested positive for the rare disease, France’s health minister said Monday.

The woman, one of five French passengers flown back from the ship MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel very unwell on Sunday night and “tests came back positive”, Health Minister Stephanie Rist told the France Inter radio broadcaster.

Twenty-two more French nationals had been identified as contact cases after being exposed to someone with the virus, Rist added. They included eight people who had travelled on an April 25 flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 more on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam, she said.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu “will hold another meeting” on Monday afternoon at his office “to closely monitor developments” regarding the hantavirus, following the confirmation of one positive case in a French woman and the identification of 22 close contacts, announced government spokesperson Maud Bregeon.

“We are monitoring the situation with the utmost vigilance, based on our knowledge of the virus, which is why the 42-day isolation period was decided upon and why our objective remains the same: to protect the French people,” he added on the French channel BFMTV.

Bregeon urged people “not to panic,” saying, “We are absolutely not at the point of having those kinds of discussions” as we did during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A US citizen from the ship has also tested positive, according to US health authorities. He “tested mildly PCR positive” for the virus, and another person “has mild symptoms”, they said.

World Health Organisation (WTO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday said the United States’ more flexible rules for citizens returning from a cruise ship hit by hantavirus “may have risks”.

“Our advice is clear, starting from May 10, 42 days [of quarantine] with active follow-up,” Tedros told reporters on the Spanish island of Tenerife when asked about US policy. “That may have risks, but of course we don’t force’ guidance, he said.

Nearly 100 passengers evacuated

The operation to repatriate passengers from the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak continued into Monday.

Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew, which includes 23 nationalities, would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon.

The operation evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands.

Three passengers from the MV Hondius – a Dutch couple and a German woman – have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.

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