France hantavirus update: contact cases continue to test negative
‘Nothing suggests variant is more dangerous or transmissible’ says health minister
The only individual to test positive for the virus remains in a critical condition at Bichat hospital in Paris
BSIP SA / Alamy Stock Photo
The 26 possible hantavirus ‘contact cases’ in France remain under quarantine at hospitals, with no wider spread of the virus identified in the country.
These contact cases continue to test negative for hantavirus, confirmed health minister Stéphanie Rist in her most recent update on the matter.
The individuals are isolated at hospitals across the country and will remain quarantined until at least May 26, when they will be reassessed for potential signs of the disease.
They may be free to go or have their quarantine period extended. An emergency decree passed last week allows for up to 42 days of isolation for hantavirus contact cases in France, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
However, any ‘pretransmission’ of the disease from before the quarantine period has been ruled out, meaning there is no risk that the virus is circulating throughout France.
The 26 individuals consist of four patients on the MV Hondius cruise ship where the hantavirus outbreak originated, as well as 22 French nationals who caught one of two flights alongside a Dutch woman who was unaware she was infected with the disease.
A 73-year old French woman who was on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for hantavirus soon after arrival in France, and is in critical condition at Paris’ Bichat hospital.
She is the only individual in France to have tested positive for the illness.
No strain mutation, mask sales up
Health authorities in France are positive that the outbreak of the virus will be kept under control globally.
Around 200 people in France per year are infected with hantavirus, although with a Eurasian strain of the illness that presents a significantly lower fatality rate and is not transmissible between humans. In France it is mostly spread by voles.
In contrast, the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship was of the ‘Andes-strain’, a variant with a fatality rate of up to 50% and crucially, the only form of the illness that is transmissible between humans.
People usually get infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine, with symptoms varying between Eurasian variants impacting brain and kidney functions, and North and South American variants affecting the pulmonary system.
There were concerns that a mutation of the Andes-strain – making it more deadly or more transmissible – was the cause of the outbreak, and may lead to another Covid-style pandemic.
However, “nothing suggests the emergence of a strain that could be more transmissible or more dangerous,” said health minister Stéphanie Rist.
Researchers from the Pasteur Institute have studied the strain responsible for the cruise ship outbreak, and following genomic analysis confirmed it is identical to the Andes-strain hantavirus responsible for previous outbreaks in South America.
An international team of researchers have gone to Ushuaia, Argentina, the expected origin of the current outbreak.
Sales of protective masks increased fifty-fold last week in France, said President of ‘Masque français’ Emmanuel Nizard to Europe 1, as concerns grew over hantavirus spread and a possible return to a Covid-style pandemic.
This remains lower than sales during the Covid pandemic however, and Mr Nizard confirmed that France has ‘buffer stocks’ of masks to deal with any sudden issue.
“We learned from the Covid period,” he said.
