Hantavirus detected in France tourist now isolated in Spain

A case of hantavirus, which recently sparked international alarm, has been detected in a Franco-Argentinian national who holidayed in France in July before being put in isolation in Spain, the French health ministry said on Aug 6.

The patient had few symptoms and now has none, the ministry said, adding that “all measures” have been put in place to “trace the stages” of the person’s journey.

The ministry said experts were to meet on Aug 6 to determine the next action to be taken and that Europe-wide coordination was being established.

The patient’s infection with the Andes strain of the virus, the only one transmissible between humans, was confirmed on August 6.

The authorities have not indicated a link to a deadly outbreak of Andes strain hantavirus on a cruise ship earlier in 2026 that triggered a global health alert.

The World Health Organisation declared the end of the outbreak in early July, after the last affected person left quarantine.

A French woman who contracted the virus on the MV Hondius was discharged from intensive care on Aug 6 after nearly three months in the hospital unit, the health ministry said.

The woman, who was repatriated in May in a critical condition along with four other French nationals, none of whom developed the disease, has been transferred to a rehabilitation centre, the ministry added.

There were 13 cases stemming from the MV Hondius cruise, including three deaths.

Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.

The cases from the cruise ship pale in comparison to the tens of thousands of hantavirus infections recorded worldwide every year, which mostly involve humans being infected by close contact with a rodent.

-AFP