Health fears recede after negative test results for Hantavirus contacts in France and the Netherlands

French authorities announced on Thursday that tests conducted on 26 people who had been in contact with Hantavirus patients aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius had come back negative, a development that has eased concerns over the spread of the rare disease.

In the same context, Dutch authorities confirmed that all individuals who arrived in the Netherlands on evacuation flights from the ship earlier this week also tested negative.

A total of 26 people remain in medical isolation in French hospitals, including 22 passengers classified as direct contacts of a Dutch woman who had been aboard the vessel, which became the focus of an international health alert after infections were recorded with the virus, which is usually associated with rodents.

French doctors are also monitoring the health of four additional passengers who were on the voyage, while a fifth French passenger is receiving treatment in a French hospital after his infection with the virus was confirmed and his condition was described as serious.

The data indicate that 22 of those in isolation had been on a flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg, or on a subsequent flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, which a Dutch passenger had been preparing to board before she was later removed from the plane and died in a hospital in South Africa.

Globally, virus-related infections have so far resulted in three deaths, with six confirmed cases and one additional probable case recorded, while an American passenger developed symptoms but tested negative, according to official statistics.

Despite the state of alert, health authorities stressed that the level of risk to the general public remains low.