French hantavirus patient critically ill, put on an artificial lung

The woman evacuated from the MV Hondius is in hospital with life-threatening lung and heart problems caused by the disease

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital caring for the sickened passenger said on Tuesday.

The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, nine of which have been confirmed.

Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The French passenger hospitalised in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, said Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.

He said the woman is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them some time to recover.

Lescure called it “the final stage of supportive care”.