Ammon News - 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 Stéphanie Rist.

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 "tests came back positive", Rist told the France Inter radio broadcaster.

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.

The operation to repatriate passengers of the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak continued into Monday, as US officials on Sunday said an American had tested positive for the virus.


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.

But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.

AFP