PARIS, May 12 (Reuters) – French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Tuesday that it wasn’t certain whether the hantavirus strain involved in the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship may have mutated, although officials were “rather reassured.”
“There are things … we do not know about this virus,” Rist told the National Assembly. “We do not yet have the complete sequencing of the virus which allows us to say with certainty today, even if we are rather reassured to date … that this virus has not yet mutated.”
The French health ministry did not respond to a request for additional comment.
The World Health Organization has said there was no indication that there was anything unusual about the hantavirus strain on the ship beyond its location.
The outbreak has been linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, with officials consulting Argentina, where an outbreak involving the same strain ended in 2019.
The WHO has confirmed nine cases and urged isolation of suspected cases, adding that more are expected given passenger interactions before the virus was detected. However, it said there was no sign of a wider outbreak.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Makini Brice; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Bernadette Baum)
