Spanish national evacuated from a hantavirus cruise ship has tested positive

A quarantined Spanish national evacuated from a hantavirus cruise ship has tested positive, the second confirmed case of hantavirus in Spain.

A Spanish citizen who was quarantined after traveling on a cruise ship with an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus has tested positive, the Spanish Health Ministry said on Monday. “The patient has been transferred to a high-level isolation unit at the Gomez Ulla Hospital, where he will remain hospitalized,” “This does not change the level of risk to the public, nor does it alter the measures of the current epidemic response,” the ministry said in a statement.

Twelve more people from other countries on board have been confirmed to have contracted the virus. There were about 150 people on board in total. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, which departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, was infected with the hantavirus. After sailing through remote islands in the South Atlantic, it headed north to Cape Verde and then to Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, where the remaining passengers were evacuated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that 12 suspected and confirmed cases have been reported to the UN agency, including three deaths, and no deaths have been reported since May 2. Hantavirus, which is spread by rats, is a rare virus for which there are no vaccines or specific treatments.

Two Irish nationals who were on the cruise ship have been in quarantine since arriving home on May 11. They will stay in a facility run by the HSE, where they will be monitored. Their quarantine period was May 6. They must remain in quarantine for 42 days, or five weeks, from that date. The interim chief medical officer, Professor Mary Horgan, had previously said the Irish nationals had no symptoms of the virus. She said they would be provided with mental health support during this time.