Spain hantavirus: two women under isolation in Alicante and Barcelona test negative

The two women under isolation in Alicante and Barcelona over contact with hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship have tested negative, Spanish health authorities have stated.

As Minister of Health Mónica García said in a press conference on Sunday, the 32-year-old woman in Alicante has already undergone two PCR tests. She will, however, have to undergo a third test, because she has presented symptoms.

The second woman is at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. This has been her first test. She has not shown symptoms consistent with hantavirus, but will have to undergo a second test.

The 32-year-old woman developed a mild cough in recent days. Because health authorities considered her a close contact of one of the cruise passengers, doctors admitted her to the Alicante hospital on Friday. Medical staff used the same type of nasopharyngeal swab that people became familiar with during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Dutch flight attendant who also entered hospital as a possible hantavirus contact has so far received the same results. She had shared an aircraft cabin with one of the cruise passengers for less than an hour.

The passenger had attempted to fly from Johannesburg to the Netherlands. Airline staff later forced the passenger off the plane after her condition visibly deteriorated. She died in the emergency department of a Johannesburg hospital on 26 April.

As for the woman in Catalonia, authorities do not currently consider her a suspected case because she has not developed symptoms. However, because she came into contact with the infected passenger during the flight, doctors have kept her under observation at Barcelona's Clínic hospital.