After quarantine on the MV Hondius: A couple recounts 42 days of isolation

Paris – 04/08/2026: For 42 days, Julia and Roland Seitre’s daily lives shrank to a single hospital room. In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, the couple recounts their strict quarantine at Bichat Hospital in Paris after returning from an expedition cruise aboard the MV Hondius. Doctors and nurses reportedly spent only around ten minutes a day with them in person.

The isolation was among the protective measures taken after an outbreak of Andes hantavirus aboard the Dutch-flagged vessel. In early May, international authorities recorded several severe illnesses; three people died. Due to the potentially long incubation period, contacts had to be monitored or quarantined for up to six weeks.

The Seitres were among the passengers brought back to France. Their accommodation at Bichat Hospital was intended to prevent possible transmission of the pathogen, but it also meant a profound separation from their usual lives. Their account is less about medical procedures than about the quiet strain of waiting: hardly any encounters, tightly regulated routines and the uncertainty of whether symptoms might still appear.

The Andes virus occupies a special position among hantaviruses. According to the World Health Organization, human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out during close and prolonged contact. Authorities in several countries therefore identified passengers, crew members and other contacts. Depending on their individual risk, they received medical support, were monitored or isolated.

French health authorities had ordered special precautions in May for people returning from the MV Hondius. These included medical and epidemiological assessments and, depending on the level of risk, quarantine or isolation. The long monitoring period was intended to account for the fact that symptoms can appear only after a delay. Possible symptoms include fever, severe fatigue, gastrointestinal problems and breathing difficulties.

For those affected, this meant that even an initially negative test did not necessarily allow an immediate return to everyday life. International experts set the start of the 42-day period as 10 May 2026. The duration was therefore not based on an arbitrarily chosen hospital rule, but on the maximum assumed period between possible exposure and the onset of illness.

On 2 July 2026, the Director-General of the World Health Organization declared the outbreak over. According to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, most passengers and crew members had already completed their quarantine on 18 June. For the Seitres, this international precautionary measure meant six weeks behind a closed hospital room door.