ANOTHER cruise ship passenger has been forced into quarantine after testing positive to hantavirus, authorities say.
A Spanish national has been put into isolation after they were exposed to the deadly virus on the Hondius vessel, the Spanish ministry of health confirmed.
The latest case of hantavirus was contracted on board the Hondius Credit: AFP
The Spanish national has entered quarantine after being evacuated from the ship in Tenerife Credit: Reuters
On Monday, an official said: “The patient was transferred to a high-level isolation unit in the Gomez Ulla hospital, where he will remain hospitalised.”
“This does not change the level of the risk for the general population and does not change the measures of the current epidemiological response,” they continued.
It marks the second confirmed case of the rat virus in Spain, after 14 Spanish travellers were evacuated from the ship.
The hantavirus outbreak sparked on the Dutch-flagged ship MV Hondius that set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina.
It toured remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Cape Verde.
The journey ended when the ship docked on Tenerife, where the remaining passengers disembarked.
At least 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries were on board the boat when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses were first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On Saturday, the WHO said 12 suspected and confirmed cases had been reported to the agency, including three deaths.
Spanish police spoke to evacuees disembarking the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship Credit: AFP
The MV Hondius departs the Granadilla Port, Tenerife, bound for Rotterdam Credit: Getty
No further deaths have been reported since May 2.
It comes as were put into month-long quarantines in Italy, despite testing negative for the deadly virus.
The 20-year-old woman and a man in his 60s were hauled into isolation after officials revealed they had both been exposed to positive cases.
The holidaymakers were both taken to Sacco Hospital in the Lombardy region, where they will be forced to remain there in , according to local media.
“This time too, following the report we received from the Ministry of Health, we acted promptly and contacted the tourist identified from the United Kingdom as a contact of a case,” Guido Bertolaso, Regional Councillor for Welfare said.
An Italian man was also struck down with suspected hantavirus and placed in quarantine after travelling on a Dutch KLM flight alongside a woman who later died from the .
The 25-year-old Calabrian local has been rushed to hospital for testing, ANSA news agency said.
Three cruise passengers have died, with two of them confirmed to have had the virus.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he expected there to be more cases of .
He said: “We would expect more cases, because the first case was on April 6 and until the report was confirmed as infectious around April 24/25, there was a lot of interaction of the passengers.
“Because of the interaction, while they were still on the ship, even as they were taking some preventative measures… we would expect more cases.”
Passengers were given a questionnaire and assessed for symptoms of the deadly disease before disembarking, but were not tested before leaving the vessel.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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