Spain’s Ministry of Health has confirmed a suspected hantavirus case in Alicante linked to the now-infamous cruise ship MV Hondius.
According to health authorities, the patient shared a flight with the cruise passenger who later died after falling ill in the emergency department of a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The case is said to be similar to that of a KLM flight attendant who also developed symptoms after contact with an infected passenger, although that crew member later tested negative for hantavirus.
The Alicante patient has now been isolated in hospital while undergoing further testing to determine whether they are actually infected.
Doctors will carry out blood tests and nasopharyngeal swabs to confirm whether the respiratory symptoms are linked to hantavirus or another illness.
If the tests return negative, authorities will downgrade the individual from a ‘suspected case’ to a ‘contact’ of a confirmed hantavirus patient.
Even in that scenario, the patient is expected to be transferred to Madrid’s Gomez Ulla hospital as part of Spain’s monitoring and prevention protocols linked to the outbreak.
The suspected case comes as European health authorities continue tracking passengers and contacts connected to the MV Hondius cruise ship, where multiple confirmed and suspected hantavirus infections have already been identified.
The World Health Organisation has so far confirmed five cases associated with the vessel while monitoring several additional suspected infections across multiple countries.
Hantavirus is a rare infectious disease usually transmitted through rodents and can cause severe respiratory complications in some patients. Authorities continue to insist that the overall risk to the wider public remains low.
