Experts have warned the first ‘generation-three’ cases of hantavirus – which sees cruise passengers pass the disease on to the public – are likely just days away.
So far, no cases have been confirmed in people who were not on board the MV Hondius, so there is no evidence that the rat-borne virus has spread beyond the confines of the ship.
But that may change, following the transfer of a contact case in Brittany, northwestern France, to hospital on Tuesday morning.
The potential case was identified in Concarneau, a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany, and they have been sent to the University Hospital of Rennes for further checks.
‘For now, this remains only a contact case, a person who has been in contact with someone carrying the virus. So there is no need to panic, we are only talking about a single case which has been contained,’ said Quentin Le Gaillard, mayor of the Breton port city.
Twelve Dutch medical staff have also been quarantined for six weeks, after workers in a hospital in Nijmegen did not follow strict protocols while handling a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine samples.
While no one has tested positive who wasn’t already on the ship, the long incubation period of the virus means that it is impossible to know whether passengers who disembarked early on April 24 have passed on the disease.
According to Dr Steven Quay, all generation-two cases – those involving people who developed symptoms after contact with ‘patient zero’, Leo Schilperoord, 70 – took an average of 22 days to become sick.
