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Reuters

A Swiss crew member of the MV Hondius is in quarantine in the Netherlands, and a Swiss national is self-isolating in Switzerland, Swiss authorities said on Monday.

The cases are in addition to that of a Swiss man who travelled on the cruise who tested positive for the Andes strain of the hantavirus, a spokesperson for the Federal Department of Home Affairs and Federal Office of Public Health said. 

He is currently being treated at a hospital in Zurich and his wife is self-isolating, according to authorities.

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As Canadian passengers from the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius cruise ship are back home isolating, there are concerns about a potential spread of the illness. For The National, Erica Johnson puts viewers' questions to infectious diseases specialist Dr. Lynora Saxinger.

In an update Monday, the World Health Organization said it has confirmed seven cases of the Andes hantavirus among people who were passengers on board the cruise ship.

But the agency later updated its overall tally of reported cases to nine, a WHO spokesperson told Reuters by email, after France reported that a French passenger evacuated from the MV Hondius had tested positive for the virus.

The 70-year-old Dutch who died on April 11 while aboard the ship died before he could be tested.

Reuters

Four German contacts from the MV Hondius are being monitored in a special isolation unit at Frankfurt University Hospital after arriving overnight, German health authorities said on Monday.

A health ministry spokesperson told Reuters the patients, all currently without symptoms, would later be transferred to Berlin, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein, where regional authorities will take over their care.

The hospital said the four were brought in between midnight and 1 a.m. Local time for medical checks and laboratory testing in Frankfurt and Marburg.

So far, there were "no indications of illness," Timo Wolf, head of the special isolation ward for highly pathogenic infections in Frankfurt, said in a statement.

Reuters

The condition of a British man who was admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg after falling ill with hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius is gradually improving, a South African health ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

"The British patient is clinically improving but still ill," spokesperson Foster Mohale told Reuters. "This means his condition is improving, gradually so."

The man was medically evacuated to South Africa on April 27 after presenting with a fever, shortness of breath and signs of pneumonia. He disembarked from the cruise ship at Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean.

French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said earlier today that the four other French passengers repatriated from Tenerife continued to test negative for the virus and are in isolation. 

Rist said authorities have identified 22 people in France as close contacts linked to the outbreak, including eight who were on a flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg on April 25, taken by the Dutch woman who died days after her husband died from the virus. 

They also include 14 French nationals who were on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam with the same woman later that day.

Epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet warned the French woman who tested positive showed "a rather rapid progression" of the illness and said the mortality rate for hantavirus is "30 to 50 per cent of infected cases." He added that officials should expect "isolated cases in the coming weeks" because the virus can incubate for up to six weeks or longer.

French officials sought to calm fears of a wider outbreak, releasing a statement saying, "there is no reason today to alarm the French population" and stressing the government is acting "with the greatest vigilance" to break possible chains of transmission.

Captain of hantavirus-hit ship thanks guests and crew for 'quiet strength' and kindness

Jan Dobrogowski, captain of the MV Hondius, released a video message on Monday thanking both his passengers and his crew for the support and care they demonstrated for one another as the cruise ship was hit with cases of the Andes hantavirus. Dobrogowski, who offered condolences to those who died, asked for privacy as they work to get passengers safely home.

The captain of the MV Hondius, Jan Dobrogowski, released a video from the ship, which is currently anchored a few hundred metres off the coast of Tenerife. 

In a heartfelt message he commended the crew and passengers of the ship for showing what he described their unity and their strength, and he wished for nothing more than for guests to go home safely and in good health. 

"I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike," Dobrogowski said.

"Most importantly, our thoughts are with the ones [who are] no longer with us. Whatever I say will not ease this loss, but I would like you to know they are with us every day, in our hearts and in our thoughts."

The vessel is expected to leave today at 7 p.m. Local time after a final repatriation flight which will carry 22 people to the Netherlands. It will then go to Rotterdam with the remaining crew, and the body of a German national who died of hantavirus earlier this month.

Three evacuated passengers from the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius — a French woman and two Americans — have tested positive or developed symptoms after returning home, health officials said Monday, as countries continue monitoring and quarantining passengers from the cruise ship outbreak. 

The French passenger's condition worsened overnight in a Paris hospital after she developed symptoms during a repatriation flight from Spain's Canary Islands, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. 

U.S. Officials say one American passenger flown to Nebraska tested positive without symptoms while another reported mild symptoms and is being assessed at a specialized quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 

Four Canadians who returned to B.C. On Sunday remain asymptomatic and are beginning a 21-day monitored isolation period. 

Three people have died since the outbreak began, while the World Health Organization says the overall risk to the public remains low.

The plane carrying the four Canadians has arrived in Bagotville, Que., where officials say the passengers will change planes for a flight to B.C.

Henry said some of the four travellers "have connections with British Columbia," which is why B.C. Was chosen for their repatriation. 

She would not disclose any additional information about them and asked that people respect their privacy as they get safely settled and isolated, saying they have been through a "challenging and frightening" ordeal. 

Henry emphasized that the four individuals "won't be out in the community" or "be having contact with people." 

She reiterated that the travellers are not currently being treated as patients.

Henry is now addressing the media, providing background on the plan for the four Canadian travellers to isolate in B.C. 

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