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Spain reports new hantavirus case in passenger evacuated from cruise ship as outbreak grows to 11 - AP News
From Associated Press via USVI News: A doctor says a French woman being treated for hantavirus after being infected on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung. A doctor at the Paris hospital treating the hantavirus patient said Tuesday the woman's blood is being.
French hantavirus patient is critically ill and on an artificial lung as outbreak grows to 11
A French woman infected with hantavirus after being repatriated from the MV Hondius cruise ship has the “most severe form of cardiopulmonary presentation,” a doctor at the Paris hospital treating her said Tuesday. (AP Video by Oleg Cetinic)
The WHO said it has confirmed 11 cases, including three people from the cruise who died. All confirmed cases are among passengers or crew of the MV Hondius cruise ship.
An ambulance enters the Bichat Hospital where a woman who tested positive for hantavirus remains in intensive care, in Paris, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Monday, May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)
From left, Executive Director of Sante Publique France Caroline Semaille, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist, Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Yazdan Yazdanpanah and infectious disease specialist Xavier Lescure attend a press conference about the situation regarding the hantavirus, in Paris, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gives a press conference at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Carlos Luján/Europa Press via AP)
PARIS (AP) — A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital caring for the sickened passenger said Tuesday. The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, 9 of which have been confirmed.
Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.
The French passenger hospitalized in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, said Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.
He said the woman is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them some time to recover. Lescure called it “the final stage of supportive care.”
With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.
The director of the World Health Organization said confirmed and suspected cases have only been reported among the cruise ship’s passengers or crew.
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