‘Rat virus’ sufferer pressured onto ‘synthetic lung’ after contracting uncommon pressure
France has confirmed its first case of a rare strain of hantavirus after a woman who travelled on the MV Hondius was left critically ill in intensive care on an ‘artificial lung’
Ambulances in France carrying patients evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection(Image: AP)
France has confirmed its first case of a rare strain of hantavirus, triggering an urgent public health operation to trace anyone who may have been exposed.
The French head of the network of hospitals for epidemic and bacteriological risks confirmed on Tuesday (May 12) that the infected victim, a French woman, had travelled on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
She has been admitted to intensive care in Bichat Hospital in Paris, with what doctors describe as the most severe form of cardiopulmonary disease, and is being kept oxygenated using an “artificial lung”.
Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital, said during a press conference on Tuesday: “The patient currently has the most severe form of the cardiopulmonary presentation.” Lescure said she was provided with “artificial oxygenation”.
He said: “She is on an artificial lung, a blood bypass, to allow, we hope, for her to get through this phase, while the lung attacked by the virus and the damage to the vascular wall can recover.” French officials have reassured that “so far, there is no evidence that several hantavirus variants exist”.
However, France’s Health Minister Stéphanie Rist did acknowledge that “there are things we don’t know” about the virus, including whether or not it has mutated. Professor Philippe Juvin, a French MP and leading emergency doctor, said there was no sign of immediate pressure on hospitals, insisting: “If the danger were very great, we’d put the money on the table.”
His comments came after Olivier Schwartz, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute, told the press conference on Tuesday that two virus samples had been sequenced so far; one in Zurich and one in Paris. “For now, no major differences have been detected, and there is no evidence that there are different variants,” Schwartz said.
Speaking to RMC radio today (May 13) about the risk of hantavirus spreading, Juvin said France was “better prepared” to handle a potential epidemic. However, he questioned whether lessons had been learned on protective supplies, adding: “On strategic stocks of masks, I’m not sure we’ve learned the lessons”, and warning that “the country has less financial room for manoeuvre”.
Juvin, who heads the emergency department at Paris’s Georges-Pompidou European Hospital, said “there’s no strain in hospitals in terms of equipment” and repeated that “if the danger were very great, we’d put the money on the table.” Meanwhile, France President Emmanuel Macron and Health Minister Stéphanie Rist have insisted the situation is “under control”, and that there is no evidence of widespread outbreak in France, Le Figaro reported.
Macron said: “The best experts have been consulted and France has put in place a very rigorous protocol, taking into account all the elements known to scientists. It’s a known virus, whose characteristics are different from Covid-19.
“The situation is under control. Now it’s important that the WHO can coordinate all this as it should.
“Mobilisation, vigilance and high standards.”
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