TWO new cruise passengers have tested positive for hantavirus after they were evacuated off the infected ship in Tenerife.
A French woman fell ill overnight as her condition started to deteriorate after disembarking the MV Hondius with several passengers now also showing worrying symptoms of the virus.
A repatriation flight out of Spain late on Sunday saw the French passenger begin to develop symptoms for the pathogen.
She later tested positive with her condition deteriorating as the plane landed in Paris, according to French Health Minister Stephanie Rist.
Brit rat virus cruise passengers land in UK & face 45 days in isolation
The woman has been placed in strict isolation as the four other French passengers she was evacuated alongside go through tests.
French authorities have also traced 22 contact cases in recent days, Rist told France Inter radio broadcaster.
These include 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.
Another of the infected holidaymakers is from the US as they tested mildly positive for hantavirus on a seperate flight back to the States on Sunday.
A second passenger also showed mild symptoms during the trip, the Department of Human Health Services added.
They are yet to be confirmed as an additional case with tests ongoing.
Both passengers were made to travel in the plane’s biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution”.
Almost 100 passengers on the MV Hondius have now managed to escape the cruise as it stopped in the Canary Islands over the weekend.
Public health workers in hazmat suits sailed up to the cruise to screen the passengers before allowing them off.
They had their temperatures takens and were checked for irregular symptoms like headaches.
Medics didn’t test for the virus on board as asymptomatic evacuees were allowed off wearing a blue clinical apron, mask and hat.
The last of those to leave the ship on Sunday were 17 US nationals who were loaded into small boats and transferred by bus to the local airport.
Timeline of rat virus outbreak
Ed Southgate, News Reporter in Tenerife
April 1 – Dutch-flagged cruise liner MV Hondius leaves Ushuaia in Argentina on 35-day Atlantic Odyssey
April 11 – First passenger, a 70-year-old Dutch man, dies
April 24 – His widow accompanies his body from the British Overseas Territory of St Helena to Johannesburg
April 25 – She boards KLM flight to Amsterdam but is refused permission to fly because of her deteriorating medical condition
April 26 – The 69-year-old woman is taken to hospital but dies
April 27 – British tourist, 69, evacuated from ship between St Helena and Ascension island and flown to Johannesburg where he remains in intensive care
May 2 – A German national dies from the virus on board the stricken vessel
May 3 – The Hondius arrives in Cape Verde but is refused permission to dock because of the outbreak
May 6 – Three people, including 56-year-old tour guide and wildlife photographer Martin Anstee, are evacuated and flown to the Netherlands for urgent medical care as ship sets sail for Canary Islands
May 7 – Frantic race against time launched to trace 29 passengers from at least 12 different countries who left the plague-ravaged cruise ship for all corners of the globe, including seven Brits. They are all later located.
May 8 – Protests erupt in Tenerife as ship prepares to dock – whilst third Brit on remote island of Tristan da Cunha tests positive for the virus.
May 10 – MV Hondius docks in Tenerife as passengers are brought ashore in hazmat suits and hosed down before evacuation flights. UK passengers will now quarantine for 45 days at a specialist hospital in the Wirral.
May 11 – Two new positive hantavirus cases detected in a French woman and a US national.
All 17 flew to Nebraska, where they are being checked over at the University of Nebraska Medical Center – home to the National Quarantine Unit.
Medics have now managed to evacuate 94 people from 19 different nationalities from the cruise, Spain‘s health minister Monica Garcia said.
Among them are 20 Britons who have now arrived at a UK hospital for tests as they face a gruelling 45-day home quarantine.
The evacuees were rushed to Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead, Merseyside on Sunday after landing at Manchester Airport.
More repatriation flights are due to take place today to both Australia and the Netherlands.
The ship is scheduled to leave Spain tonight and depart for the Netherlands with just 30 crew members on board.
Since the MV Hondius departed Argentina last month, three deaths of those on board have been linked to hantavirus.
Patient zero was quickly identified as ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, who boarded the ship with his wife Mirjam, 69.
He is believed to have caught the virus from an Argentinian rat after they visited a landfill site on March 27.
The birdwatching hotspot is home to a rare species of Patagonian bird, including the white-bellied seedsnipe.
The couple, from small Netherlands village Haulerwijk, had been on a five-month trip around South America.
Leo was the first patient to die of the virus on board the ship.
There have also been three other confirmed cases of the virus.
These include British crew member Martin Anstee, who is being treated in the Netherlands after being airlifted from the vessel.
The disease remains a low risk to the general public, according to the World Health Organisation.
The WHO Director General said: “The operation has started and is going very well. We appreciate the cooperation.”
What is hantavirus? Bug with 40% mortality rate reaches Europe
By Bethan Moss and Eliza Loukou
THE deadly virus that has ripped through Dutch cruise ship the MV Hondius, killing three, is usually transmitted via contact with rodent droppings.
But this particular strain, known as “the Andes virus” is an alarming exception.
Only found in the mountains of Argentina and Chile, the strain is the only hantavirus that has demonstrated the ability to spread between humans.
And the strain could have a terrifying mortality of up to 40 per cent, the WHO believe.
Passengers onboard the MV Hondius now face a weeks-long quarantine as officials scramble to contain the deadly outbreak.
Hantaviruses are spread by rats, through contact with their urine, droppings and saliva.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are 10,000 to 100,000 cases in humans every year across the world.
Symptoms range from a mild flu-like illness to major respiratory issues or internal bleeding.
Although uncommon, limited human to human transmission has been reported in previous outbreaks of Andes virus – a specific species of hantavirus.
The strain is found largely in Chile and Argentina – where the cruise ship started in March – is the only known variant that can spread through close, prolonged human-to-human contact.
The WHO confirmed on Wednesday that the outbreak on the cruise ship is the Andes hantavirus.
South African officials also confirmed the Andes strain had caused infections in two of the cruise passengers.
It comes after daredevil Army medics parachuted into the world’s most remote inhabited island to treat a suspected case of hantavirus.
Medics were strapped to soldiers from the elite Pathfinders unit in an historic mission on Tristan da Cunha on Saturday.
Brigadier Ed Cartwright told Sky News that a British patient fighting a suspected case of hantavirus on Tristan “was on oxygen and that oxygen was running out”.
The MoD said the jump “was the only method of getting vital care to the patient in time”.
