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Associated Press

A Spanish passenger evacuated from the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, Spain’s health ministry announced on Tuesday as the World Health Organization said it has now confirmed 11 cases, including three people from the cruise who died.
The passenger with the new confirmed case of hantavirus was in quarantine in a military hospital in Madrid, where 13 other Spanish nationals evacuated on Sunday – who all tested negative for the virus – also are staying.
With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.
The director-general of the World Health Organization, who was in Madrid, said all 11 confirmed cases are among passengers or crew of the MV Hondius cruise ship, including three people who died. Nine of the 11 cases have been confirmed as the Andes virus.

“These numbers have changed little over the past week thanks to the governments of multiple countries and partners,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said.
“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” he added, “but of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks”.
Meanwhile, 12 staff members at a Dutch hospital where a hantavirus patient is being treated were told to quarantine after incorrectly handling bodily fluids.
In a Paris hospital, a French woman evacuated from the stricken ship remained in intensive care in stable condition. The French government was holding two new hantavirus emergency meetings on Tuesday, the prime minister said.
Health authorities say it is the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.
A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew were escorted from the ship to shore in Tenerife by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks in a carefully choreographed effort that ended on Monday night. Remaining crew members then took on supplies and set course for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, the ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

Two aircraft arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven overnight. The first was carrying 19 of the ship’s crew and three doctors. The Dutch nationals were taken home to quarantine and the others, including 17 crew members from the Philippines, were sent to a quarantine facility set up by Dutch health authorities.
A second plane landed later in Eindhoven chartered by Australian authorities and carrying six Hondius passengers – four Australians, one person from New Zealand and a British national who lives in Australia, according to the Dutch foreign ministry. It said the passengers will remain in quarantine near the airport and continue their journey towards Australia “as soon as possible”. Australian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for more details.
Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms – which can include fever, chills and muscle aches – usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.


WHO chief Tedros has advised that returning passengers should stay in quarantine, either in their homes or in other facilities, for 42 days. He added that WHO cannot enforce its guidance, and that different countries may handle the monitoring of passengers without symptoms in different ways.
Twelve employees at a Dutch hospital where a passenger from the Hondius is being treated have to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids, Radboud University Medical Center said in a statement on Monday night.
The “risk of infection is low” the hospital said, but was requiring the dozen employees to go into preventive quarantine as a “precaution”.
The hospital in the eastern city of Nijmegen received a passenger last week from one of the evacuation flights that landed in the Netherlands and the person has since tested positive for hantavirus.
Blood and urine from the patient should have been handled “according to a stricter procedure”, the hospital said.


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World Health Organization (WHO)

Spain reports new hantavirus case as outbreak grows to 11

Members of the media gather in front of the entrance to the Gomez Ulloa Hospital in Madrid on Tuesday, where Spanish passengers from the MV Hondius cruise have been taken for quarantine. Photo: EPA

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (left) and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus brief the media in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

People from the hantavirus-hit cruise MV Hondius wait for transfer in the terminal at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

More passengers from hantavirus-hit cruise ship test positive

A bus transporting repatriated British nationals from the MV Hondius as they arrive at Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead, Britain. Photo: Reuters

Workers in protective gear on a tanker next to MV Hondius in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands. Photo: Reuters

Hantavirus outbreak: UK to isolate cruise ship passengers in ex-Covid hospital

Passengers on the MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain’s port of Tenerife on  Wednesday. Photo: AP

Buildings at Arrowe Park Hospital are pictured in Wirral, England, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

WHO boss arrives in Spain to oversee ship evacuation amid more suspected hantavirus cases

Sant Joan university hospital, where a woman with symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection is being treated, is seen in Alicante, Spain, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Workers set up temporary shelters on Saturday in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Spain. Photo: AP

A biohazard suit for staff in an isolation unit at a hospital in Tenerife on Friday. Photo: EPA

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia addresses a press conference about the hantavirus outbreak on Saturday. Photo: EPA

Spain opens port to hantavirus-hit cruise ship as rare Andes strain confirmed

The MV Hondius anchored off Cabo Verde. Photo: AP

Medical workers in protective gear. Photo: Qasem Elhato via AP

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World Health Organization chief says there is currently ‘no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak’


World Health Organization chief says there is currently ‘no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak’.


Spain reports new hantavirus case as outbreak grows to 11

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}World Health Organization chief says there is currently ‘no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak’

World Health Organization chief says there is currently ‘no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak’