France, Netherlands say all hantavirus contact cases negative

France’s health minister said on Thursday that 26 people in France identified as close contacts of hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship had tested negative for the illness. Dutch authorities said that all people who arrived in the Netherlands on evacuation flights from the ship this week have also tested negative. Twenty-six people are in hospital isolation in France, including 22 identified as close contacts of a Dutch woman on the MV Hondius that was at the centre of an...

By Agence France-Presse

Hantavirus close contacts in France have so far tested negative

The number of confirmed hantavirus cases from the Hondius cruise ship outbreak stands at eleven, three of whom have died. In France, a woman who tested positive remains in hospital in critical condition… while twenty two close contacts are being monitored and have so far tested negative. Health officials say the risk to the general public remains low because the virus does not easily spread between people, and for the time being, has not mutated. Story by Emerald Maxwell.

By FRANCE24

All 26 people under observation for hantavirus in France tested negative, health minister says

"These 26 people will continue to be medically monitored and tested three times a week," she wrote. "Health authorities will no longer communicate these results, except if there is a positive test."

All Hondius evacuees in NL test negative for hantavirus

Everyone flown back to the Netherlands from the cruise ship Hondius has tested negative for the hantavirus, public health institute...

By Louis Gore-Langton