Spain confirms one new hantavirus case amongst evacuees as passengers remain under watch across Europe.
There is "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak following the evacuation of the last passengers from a disease-stricken cruise ship, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on a press conference on Tuesday.
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As of Tuesday, 12 May, the WHO has identified 11 cases, nine of them confirmed, and three deaths, all among passengers of the cruise.
The last case is among the Spanish passengers quarantined in the Gómez Ulla Central Defence Hospital in Madrid, the Spanish Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
"Yesterday, the patient presented with low-grade fever and mild respiratory symptoms; however, they are currently stable with no evident clinical deterioration," the Ministry confirmed on a post on X.
The other 13 Spanish passengers have tested negative for hantavirus.
The United States announced on Monday, following the evacuation from the ship, that one passenger is currently experiencing mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus.
In a second test on Tuesday, the US passenger tested negative, the Spanish Health Ministry added.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday defended his administration's handling of the hantavirus outbreak detected on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which on Monday was forced to dock in the port of Granadilla, in Tenerife.
Sánchez called the operation a "success" during a press conference he attended together with the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO chief thanked the Spanish leader "not only" for having complied with "Spain's legal obligations under international law", but also for "exercising his moral duty". His moral duty to show solidarity with the boat's passengers".
The head of the WHO stressed the difficult situation for both the passengers and the crew of the cruise ship, who had been locked aboard the vessel for days, and assured that, while he understood "the concern" of the Canary Island people, not to have allowed them to evacuate would have been "inhumane".
Dutch hospital workes isolated
Twelve Dutch hospital workers at the Radboudumc university medical centre in Nijmegen have been placed in precautionary quarantine after following an incorrect procedure with a hantavirus patient, the hospital said in a statement on Monday night.
The patient was taken to the hospital on 7 May after being evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship. When taking the patient's blood, a standard procedure was followed, rather than a stricter protocol required due to the "nature of the virus."
The hospital also said that the most recent international regulations were not followed when disposing of the patient's urine.
The hospital workers will be in preventive quarantine for six weeks, "even though the risk of infection is low," the hospital said. The hantavirus patient is also in quarantine.
"We regret that this has happened at our university medical center. We will carefully investigate the course of events to learn from this and to prevent it from happening in the future," said Bertine Lahuis, Chair of the Executive Board of Radboudumc.
The MV Hondius cruise ship began its journey back to the Netherlands on Tuesday after its last passengers disembarked as part of a large-scale evacuation operation that began on Sunday.
The final cohort of 28 evacuees travelled on chartered buses to Tenerife South Airport and boarded two flights that landed in the Netherlands early on Tuesday.
One plane carried mostly crew members: 17 Filipinos, a Dutch national and a German, as well as a British doctor and two epidemiologists.
Wearing facemasks, the evacuees disembarked from the air ambulance clutching white bags of their belongings and walked into Eindhoven airport's terminal.
Three people died after the rare virus that usually spreads among rodents was detected on board the MV Hondius, sparking a global health scare.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for the virus, but health officials have said the risk to the public is low and dismissed comparisons to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Dutch-flagged ship was expected to arrive in Rotterdam on Sunday evening, according to its operator, where it will undergo disinfection procedures.
This story was updated with the latest news.
