Spain Reports New Hantavirus Case From MV Hondius, Outbreak Reaches 11 Total Cases

A Spanish passenger evacuated from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius tested positive for hantavirus, Spain’s health ministry announced Tuesday as the outbreak reached 11 total reported cases, with three people on the cruise dead.

“A Spanish passenger evacuated from the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, Spain’s Ministry of Health has announced, with the World Health Organization (WHO) confirming 11 cases, including three people from the cruise who have died”

Al Jazeera

The French woman infected in the outbreak was described by Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital, as critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung in Paris.

Al Jazeera

The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was "no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak" while adding that the situation "could change" given the virus’s long incubation period.

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius was sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

The latest confirmed case was quarantined at a military hospital in Madrid, where other Spanish nationals removed from the ship had all tested negative for the virus.

In Madrid, Spain’s health ministry said the Spanish passenger who provisionally tested positive was confirmed positive, while "all but one" of 14 Spaniards quarantined after being removed from the ship on Sunday tested negative.

In Paris, Dr. Xavier Lescure said the French patient is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, and he called it "the final stage of supportive care."

AP News

The WHO said confirmed and suspected cases have only been reported among the cruise ship’s passengers or crew, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advised returning passengers to stay in quarantine for 42 days.

In the Netherlands, Radboud University Medical Center said 12 employees at a hospital in Nijmegen had to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids from a patient.

The WHO also said nine of the 11 confirmed cases involved the rare Andes variant, which usually spreads among rodents but is transmissible between humans and has no vaccine or treatment.

Argentina’s health ministry said Tuesday that a team of scientific experts would be dispatched in the coming days to investigate the origin of the outbreak, after the WHO identified a Dutch couple as the first cruise passengers infected.

“Breaking news on elEconomista”

El Economista

The WHO said the couple spent several months in Argentina and neighboring South American countries before boarding the cruise ship, and Argentine officials said they took a bird-watching tour that included a stop at a garbage dump where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.

Euronews reported that Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended his administration’s handling of the outbreak and called the operation a "success" during a press conference attended with WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Euronews also said the WHO chief thanked Sánchez for complying with "Spain's legal obligations under international law" and for exercising a "moral duty" to show solidarity with the boat’s passengers.

El Economista reported that Spain’s Public Health Commission set May 10 as the "Day Zero" for the official start of quarantine and updated the protocol for positive and suspected hantavirus cases, including that quarantine could be extended to a maximum of 42 days.