positive

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.”

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One French passenger and one from the US test positive after being evacuated from the vessel in the Canary Islands.

A French woman and an American man have tested positive for hantavirus infections as countries around the world repatriate passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak.

French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Monday that a French passenger who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship tested positive for the virus and her condition was deteriorating, the Reuters news agency reported.

“What is key is to act at ⁠the start and break ⁠the virus transmission chains,” Rist told France Inter radio, pointing to the “decree ⁠that came out today that will allow us to ⁠strengthen isolation measures for ⁠contact cases and to protect the population”.

Another four French passengers have so far tested negative, and authorities have identified 22 contact cases.

The US Department of Health and Human Services said on Sunday that an American on a repatriation flight had tested “mildly positive” for the virus and another had mild symptoms. Both were travelling “in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution” and all 17 MV Hondius passengers on board would undergo clinical assessment upon arrival in the US.

The two new cases bring the total number of confirmed cases to 10. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far confirmed two deaths and one probable death, and as of Friday, four people were hospitalised with one in intensive care in South Africa.

The MV Hondius was anchored near the Canary Island of Tenerife after being stranded for weeks following an outbreak of the hantavirus on the luxury cruise ship. Health authorities have been locating and monitoring passengers who disembarked from the ship before the outbreak was identified.

Investigations into the source of the outbreak are ongoing.

The evacuation ⁠of passengers from the cruise ship will be completed on Monday with flights to Australia and the Netherlands, Spain’s health minister said.

One flight to Australia will evacuate six passengers ⁠from Tenerife and another to the Netherlands will take 18 passengers. Both flights are to also carry passengers from other countries that did not send their own repatriation flights, officials said.

Hantaviruses can cause severe respiratory illness and are usually spread by rodents but can also, in more rare cases, be transmitted between people. Symptoms can begin between one and eight weeks after exposure and include headaches, fever, chills, gastrointestinal issues and respiratory distress.

The fatality rate of the Andes strain of the hantavirus, identified in the ship’s outbreak, can reach 40 to 50 percent, particularly among elderly people.

The WHO has recommended a quarantine of 42 days for the cruise passengers. Experts are stressing the need for calm, noting that the virus is far less contagious than COVID-19.

Robin May, chief scientific officer at the United Kingdom Health Security Agency, said the risk to the public was “extremely low”, the Press Association news agency reported.