Spain confirms one new hantavirus case amongst evacuees as passengers remain under watch across Europe.
There is "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak following the evacuation of the last passengers from a disease-stricken cruise ship, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on a press conference on Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
As of Tuesday, 12 May, the WHO has identified 11 cases, nine of them confirmed, and three deaths, all among passengers of the cruise.
The last case is among the Spanish passengers quarantined in the Gómez Ulla Central Defence Hospital in Madrid, the Spanish Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
"Yesterday, the patient presented with low-grade fever and mild respiratory symptoms; however, they are currently stable with no evident clinical deterioration," the Ministry confirmed on a post on X.
The other 13 Spanish passengers have tested negative for hantavirus.
The United States announced on Monday, following the evacuation from the ship, that one passenger is currently experiencing mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.
In a second test on Tuesday, the US passenger tested negative, the Spanish Health Ministry added.
A woman who left the ship this weekend as part of the evacuation operation has been confirmed as a new hantavirus case, French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist told national media.
The two suspected cases identified by the Spanish government have tested negative, the Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed.
The MV Hondius reached the Spanish coastal port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife on Sunday. From there, the passengers were transferred to their respective home countries, where they will undergo medical tests and follow an isolation period.
Passengers in quarantine
All passengers have now been transferred to their home countries, in an operation described as a "success" by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“All suspected and confirmed cases have been isolated and managed under strict medical supervision, minimising the risk of further transmission,” Tedros said.
The WHO's recommendations include strict supervision at home or in a quarantine facility for 42 days, starting to count from 10 May.
Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked
Health authorities across four continents continue to track down and monitor passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected, and are trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday.
A Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship was too ill to take an international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.
The Dutch public health service is currently undertaking contract tracing on passengers from the flight who had contact with the ill woman before she left the plane.
On Friday, UK health authorities said a third British national is suspected of having the hantavirus.
The UK Health Security Agency said the suspected case is on Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, where the ship stopped in April.
There was no word on their condition.
Two other Britons who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus. One is hospitalized in the Netherlands and the other in South Africa
Passengers disembarked after first onboard death
Around 40 passengers disembarked from the cruise ship after the first passenger died on board, Dutch officials say. The passengers left the MV Hondius during a stop at the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, according to the Dutch foreign ministry.
Among them was the wife of a 70-year-old Dutch passenger who died onboard after falling ill during the voyage. She later flew on a commercial flight to South Africa, where she collapsed and died in the hospital.
The cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, had previously only confirmed that the Dutch woman left the ship with her husband’s body and had not publicly acknowledged that dozens of other passengers also disembarked.
Dutch authorities did not say where the passengers who left the ship are now.
What is hantavirus?
Hantavirus refers to a group of viruses carried by rodents, primarily transmitted to humans through inhalation of airborne particles from dried rodent droppings.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hantaviruses can cause two serious illnesses.
The first is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which affects the lungs and can lead to severe respiratory failure. The second is haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which affects the kidneys and can cause serious complications.
This story was updated on 12 May.
