{"id":15518,"date":"2026-05-16T23:21:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/15518\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T23:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:21:41","slug":"france-says-cruise-ship-andes-virus-matches-known-south-american-viruses-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/15518\/","title":{"rendered":"France says cruise ship Andes virus matches known South American viruses"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2013 France\u2019s Pasteur Institute said it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger<\/a> from the MV Hondius cruise ship and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe analyzed virus corresponds to the viruses already known and monitored in South America,\u201d Health Minister St\u00e9phanie Rist said Friday on X. \u201cAt this stage, no element suggests the emergence\u201d of a form of the virus that could be more transmissible or more dangerous, she said.<\/p>\n

Pasteur said genomic analysis confirmed that the virus found in the French passenger matched the virus detected in other cases aboard the ship<\/a> and closely resembled known Andes virus samples circulating in South America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sequencing work allows us to better understand the virus and to ensure close health monitoring,\u201d Rist said. She added that the data would be shared with the international scientific community.<\/p>\n

Pasteur said the viruses detected in patients from the ship were identical to each other and about 97% similar to some Andes viruses circulating in South America, including those identified in rodents. Jean-Claude Manuguerra, who heads Pasteur\u2019s Environment and Infectious Risk unit, said the remaining variation appeared to reflect natural viral variation and did not seem to affect the characteristics of the virus detected among travelers.<\/p>\n

The French passenger tested positive after traveling aboard the MV Hondius and has been treated in Paris. French authorities previously said she was in serious condition.<\/p>\n

The outbreak on the ship has reached<\/a> 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed. Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple<\/a> who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2013 France\u2019s Pasteur Institute said it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,709,11854,3219,10901,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-15518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-jean-claude-manuguerra","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-stephanie-rist","13":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}