France confines over 1,700 passengers on British ship after gastroenteritis outbreak

Paris: Over 1,700 passengers and crew on a British cruise ship were ordered to remain on board after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, French authorities said on Wednesday. They dismissed any link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on another vessel that has put European health authorities on alert.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool that was due to take in ports in northern Spain and along France's Atlantic coast. It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening. The prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Gironde department, Étienne Guyot, suspended disembarkation from the Ambition and restricted the vessel’s interactions with the port of Bordeaux. Up to 50 passengers showed symptoms consistent with acute digestive infection after the ship’s captain alerted French authorities on Tuesday evening.

Those affected were isolated in their cabins. Samples are being analysed by the infectious diseases department of the Bordeaux teaching hospital, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, to identify the pathogen, assess transmission risks and determine further measures. “There is no reason to establish a link between this outbreak aboard a cruise ship from Belfast and Liverpool and the hantavirus cases detected aboard the MV Hondius,” a statement said.

Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye­sus has urged countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after a deadly outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius spread across multiple countries. 

—ap