US and French nationals test positive for hantavirus after leaving cruise ship | BBC News

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]News now. There is further evidence of the spread of antivirus on board a cruise ship after a French passenger tested positive for the disease while being repatriated. Her condition is said to be deteriorating. The World Health Organization says seven people have now been confirmed with the Andes strain of the virus and another two are suspected.

[00:00:19]The ship has mored off the Spanish island of Tenneref. Here's our correspondent Vincent Mcameni.

[00:00:26]It was the end of a very long and stressful journey as they pulled into Arrow Park Hospital. None of those on board had symptoms, but the UK authorities weren't taking any chances.

[00:00:38]The 20 British nationals as well as a German resident of the UK and a Japanese national will spend 72 hours here on the whirl being tested and then if all is well they'll selfisolate either at hospital accommodation or at home for 6 weeks.

[00:00:55]>> We're going to be testing them very extensively um looking for any presence of the virus. So people will remember PCR testing from COVID days. So we'll be using that to look for the virus and also checking their blood for the presence of antibodies that might suggest they've been exposed to it uh during the cruise or previously.

[00:01:12]>> The MV Hondius dropped anchor off this port in Tenneref on Sunday morning with the passengers having spent weeks at sea with the hivirus outbreak confirmed on board and the news that three of their fellow passengers had died. And so the complex operation to get people off began. first by small boat transfer as they were fed ashore in full protective gear. Then with their belongings specially wrapped, they were put on buses with a thumbs up and away from these British passengers.

[00:01:44]And finally, they were on their way home with this special charter flight taking them to Manchester airport. Arop Park Hospital has experience of this kind of thing. Back in 2020, it took in the British nationals evacuated from Wuhan, China at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. But hospital bosses also recognized that those memories may cause local anxiety.

[00:02:08]>> The fact that we were the sort of the isolation center for COVID, for the Corona virus before it was a pandemic, that may trigger some people to feel more anxious about what that might mean.

[00:02:21]But really this is an understood known virus that um has um that the um that can be uh managed appropriately and so it's very very different.

[00:02:33]>> But the latest news from the US will be of concern. Of the 17 US nationals who'd been on board the ship now back in America, one is said to have mild symptoms and another has tested positive.

[00:02:47]Meanwhile, British paratroopers have landed on Tristan Duna to assist a UK national who had disembarked the crews on the remote mid-Atlantic island and who now has symptoms of the virus.

[00:02:59]Oxygen was among the suppliers air dropped to him as stocks on the island are critically low. Vincent Mcavini, BBC News.

[00:03:08]>> Well, let's go live to our correspondent Guy Hedgek who's in Tenneref. And Guy, tell us a little more about this latest French passenger and the concern around her.

[00:03:19]>> Well, that's right. Well, this this French passenger um started showing symptoms uh yesterday on the flight from Tenneref where I am to Paris uh while she was being repatriated. She subsequently tested positive uh for the Hanser virus. Uh and she's now under observation. Um now the the authorities here and the World Health World Health Organization have said that that's not necessarily uh unusual. Uh the WHO actually told the BBC that we can expect more cases. Um that that wouldn't necessarily be a shock. The important thing is to treat them with the correct protocol that that is to um observe the uh correct quarantine which is 42 days and in particular the first few days to have uh close observation of the person affected.

[00:04:10]I was just reading the very latest from the US authorities about their repatriation. They are saying 16 of those passengers are in Nebraska, two are in Atlanta. And I suppose all the focus now is on the the tracing and isolation that has to now follow.

[00:04:29]>> Yes, that's right. And although the authorities hadn't keen to play down the comparisons with COVID, uh that of course does bring up memories of of the pandemic because that was exactly what was happening um at the beginning of the pandemic and and for much of the time that it was uh that it was affecting the world. Um so the authorities are very keen to trace all people who had any kind of contact with the passengers on the the Hondius boat. Um it's right behind me here in the port in Tenneref still. Um the passengers are due to be to complete their disembarkation today.

[00:05:08]But of course that's not the end of the story because uh anyone who's had any contact with the passengers or who was on board the boat earlier in its voyage who then disembarked uh they have to be traced and tracked. And uh it was an international uh group of people who were on board that uh that boat. 23 nationalities. That makes tracking and tracing uh quite a complex matter. Uh but the authorities say that uh they're going to pursue it and it can be done in a in a rigorous and thorough way.

[00:05:40]>> Guy Hedgeco there in Tenneref, thanks very much and apologies for the slight breakup on that line.