Hantavirus alert: French cruise passenger placed on artificial lung support as outbreak grows to 11 cases

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and is currently being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital told AP News.

The French passenger hospitalized in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital told the media outlet. He said she is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body.



The outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship has infected at least 11 people. The latest person confirmed to be infected with hantavirus is a Spanish passenger, Spain’s health ministry said Tuesday. The passenger was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.

As the number of hantavirus cases climb, health authorities are into emergency response mode, scrambling to understand how the virus spread and whether more cases will emerge. The virus, which is typically associated with rodent exposure, isn't something cruise ship passengers usually worry about. But here it is, spreading through a vessel with hundreds of people in close quarters. That's what makes this outbreak genuinely alarming.

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe form of the disease kills roughly 38 percent of people who contract it, according to CDC data. The disease starts with respiratory symptoms—fever, cough, shortness of breath—and can rapidly progress to complete organ failure. Hantavirus typically spreads through contact with infected rodents or their droppings. It's not normally a person-to-person transmission.

“Transmission of hantaviruses to humans occurs from contact with contaminated urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents. Infection may also occur, although less commonly, through rodent bites. Activities that involve contact with rodents such as cleaning enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces, farming, forestry work and sleeping in rodent-infested dwellings increase exposure risk,” the WHO says.

"Hantavirus infections are relatively uncommon globally but are associated with a case fatality rate of <1–15% in Asia and Europe and up to 50% in the Americas. Worldwide, it is estimated that from 10 000 to over 100 000 infections occur each year with the largest burden in Asia and Europe," the the UN health agency says.