3 US, French nationals test hantavirus +ve

Evacuated woman taken to Paris while American flown to Nebraska is asymptomatic

Agencies The Hague

Three passengers from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak tested positive or showed symptoms on Monday as international repatriation efforts intensified. The vessel, the MV Hondius, anchored in the Canary Islands where personnel in protective gear escorted travellers to shore for military-led flights. 

French Health Minister Stephanie Rist reported on Monday a French woman, who developed symptoms during a flight to Paris on Sunday, has seen her health deteriorate in hospital.

She is one of five French nationals evacuated and flown out of Tenerife on Sunday.

Simultaneously, 17 Americans were evacuated to the University of Nebraska Medical Centre. US health officials confirmed one American tested positive while another showed mild symptoms. With them is a British national who lives in the US. Hospital spokesperson Kayla Thomas stated that symptomatic individuals are being moved to a biocontainment unit, while others remain in a national quarantine unit for monitoring.  

It comes as WHO said on Monday there have been nine cases — seven confirmed and two more probable — of hantavirus during this outbreak.

UK ARMY AIR-DROPS MEDical AID TO ISLAND 

The UK Army launched an emergency parachute mission to deliver critical aid to a suspected Hantavirus patient on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. One of the three British nationals diagnosed with suspected hantavirus connected to the outbreak on the ship is on the island. 

According to the WHO, he disembarked from the ship on April 14. Symptoms began with diarrhoea on April 28, followed by a fever on April 30. He is isolating on the island and is stable.

Six paratroopers and two military clinicians from the 16 Air Assault Brigade jumped from a Royal Air Force A400M transport aircraft onto the island. Critical oxygen supplies and other medical aid were airdropped, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

2 INDIANS SAFE

The Embassy of India in Spain's Madrid has confirmed the two Indians were “healthy and asymptomatic”. 

It said the Spanish National Centre for Emergency Moni­t­o­r­ing and Coordination info­r­med that the two Indians travelling as crew members were evacuated to the Netherlands and quarantined.

“The ambassador is in close contact with the Spanish authorities and the two Indian nationals (crew members) and is regularly monitoring the situation to assure the well-being and safety of the Indian nationals,” it said.