Another passenger appears to be ill after spending time aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship on which crew and passengers have been suffering a rare virus outbreak.
Two passengers from Texas on the ship are said to have contracted Andes Hantavirus, a rare but deadly form of RNA virus that appeared to spread quickly among the ship's passengers, killing three people, authorities have said.
Some passengers were let off the ship earlier, but those remaining arrived at the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain on Sunday, with each passenger taken by boat to a nearby hospital outpost where they received medical checks.
One of those who passed a medical check, however, was a French citizen who then boarded a plane for his home country along with five other French nationals, according to French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu Sunday afternoon.
That French citizen began displaying Hantavirus symptoms on the plane home, however, and now all six of those passengers will have to be watched closely over the next few weeks for any signs of infection by the virus, which is typically spread by contact of some kind by rodents and has an incubation period measured in weeks, not days.
Owners of the ship had previously said none of those left on the ship were displaying symptoms.
There are now at least 10 suspected cases of Hantavirus among those on the ship, which was carrying nearly 150 people from about 15 nations, along with 60 crewmembers.
There are said to have been 17 Americans on board.