Spaniard tests positive for hantavirus in cruise-linked oubtreak
A second Spaniard who disembarked from a cruise ship in the Canary Islands earlier this month has tested positive for the virus while in quarantine, Spanish health officials said Monday. File Photo by Elton Monteiro/EPA
May 26 (UPI) — A Spanish national who was aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has tested positive for the virus, Spanish health officials said, apparently increasing the number of confirmed and probable cases linked to the outbreak to 13.
The unidentified patient was among the 14 Spanish nationals who disembarked from the vessel in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on the morning of May 10, after the hantavirus cluster was identified earlier that month. Three of the cases have died.
Spain’s Ministry of Health said the patient was confirmed positive while in preventive quarantine at Gomez Ulla Hospital in Madrid, where the individual has been under clinical surveillance and isolation since disembarking from the vessel.
“The positive case was detected during the periodic diagnostic checks carried out on the contacts under follow-up,” the ministry said in a social media statement.
The patient has since been transferred to the High-level Isolation Unit at Gomez Ulla, where they will be under what the ministry said was “specialized medical supervision” and provided with biosafety measures.
“Health authorities stress that the case was detected within the isolation and control system already in place, and therefore does not change the risk situation for the general population or alter the ongoing epidemiological response measures,” health officials said.
The new case was announced a day after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the cruise-linked outbreak had 12 cases.
The ship with about 150 passengers and crew from nearly two dozen nations on board were forced to dock in the Canary Islands earlier this month due to the hantavirus outbreak that at that time was responsible for two deaths and eight cases, six confirmed and two probable.
Among those who disembarked were the 14 Spanish nationals, including 13 passengers and one crew member, who remain at Gomez Ulla Hospital.
With the announcement Monday, two Spanish nationals have tested positive since disembarking from the vessel, with the first positive case being made public by the ministry on May 11.
On Friday, the ministry said that those under monitoring who have been asymptomatic and tested negative for the virus during the first 28 days from the time they were admitted could complete their mandatory 42 days of monitoring at home. The 28-day hospital quarantine is to end around June 7.
Spain’s health minister, Monica Garcia, told reporters on Friday that all 14 Spaniards in quarantine were “doing well.”
“Even the one who had symptoms has begun to be asymptomatic,” she said.
“They have now been able to leave their rooms and share the common areas.”
On Sunday, Ghebreyesus said the cruise-linked hantavirus outbreak was “stable for now.”