Hantavirus: the Minister of Health rules out the scenario of “diffuse circulation”

She had decided to surround herself with numerous specialists. Tuesday May 12, Minister of Health Stéphanie Rist gave a press conference with medical specialists. To reassure the general public, she clarified that there was, for the moment, no no sign of “diffuse circulation” of hantavirus Andes “on national territory”. Of the five French cruise passengers, one woman is in intensive care in “serious condition” in Paris. The latter, aged 65, suffers from “the most severe form of cardiopulmonary presentation”. In order to ensure “artificial oxygenation, she has an artificial lunga blood diversion to allow, we hope, to pass the course, the time that the lung attacked by this virus and the lesions of the vascular wall can recover” explained the infectious disease specialist Xavier Lescure.

Currently, 22 contact cases have been identified in France. All these people have been “contacted, tested, hospitalized (or currently being hospitalized) and are subject to rigorous health monitoring”. The Minister of Health specifies that there is no opposition to hospitalization from patients.

For his part, Emmanuel Macron assures that the situation linked to hantavirus in France is “under control”. He specifies that the government has put in place “extremely rigorous protocols” in consultation with the “best experts” to curb the spread of the virus. During a press conference in Nairobi at the close of a Franco-African summit, he underlined the importance of “real European coordination, that is to say that the protocols follow the most demanding standards which have been defined in the very short term, and that the World Health Organization can coordinate all of this as it should.

Regarding a parallel with the Covid-19 epidemic, he wants to be reassuring: “Today, the government undoubtedly has one of the most demanding protocols like Spain and a few others, which is a good thing, because we have experience from the past. However, it is not a question of comparing what is not comparable.”

Still marked by the Covid-19 epidemic, the population is wondering about the benefit of wearing a protective mask. Regarding the state of stocks, the Minister of Health assures that the “strategic stocks of masks” are being replenished. “We have no concerns on the subject,” assured Stéphanie Rist.

If epidemiologist Antoine Flahaut calls for taking “things with great caution”, he assures that the current situation had nothing to do with the Covid-19 pandemic. With the hantavirus, “we are in an unprecedented situation because the epidemic started on a boat: we can count all the contact cases “. At this time, there is no vaccine available against Andean hantavirus. However, there are projects “in clinical and pre-clinical phase, based on RNA”.