Spanish authorities have identified a woman living in Catalonia who had been in contact with a Dutch citizen who had traveled aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak. She died after attempting to board a KLM flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25.
According to the Ministry of Health's Coordination Center for Alerts and Health Emergencies (CCAES), the Spanish passenger was not identified in the initial contact tracing because she had changed seats on the KLM flight. The Dutch national was removed from the plane before takeoff due to her poor health and died on April 26 in a hospital in the South African capital. Catalan authorities have already activated the monitoring and surveillance measures required for high-risk contacts and have ordered the Spanish passenger to be quarantined in a hospital in Catalonia.
The woman, health sources specify, "is not showing any symptoms." The case is part of the emergency health plan activated in Spain as part of a complex international operation following the outbreak on the polar cruise ship MV Hondius, which is currently en route to the Canary Islands, where it is scheduled to arrive tonight—between Saturday and Sunday— for the evacuation of passengers.
The hantavirus outbreak on board has so far caused three deaths and eight infections, six of which have been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
Another Spanish citizen from Alicante, who was in contact with the Dutch passenger on the same KLM flight on April 25, was hospitalized yesterday in Alicante (Valencia) "with symptoms compatible" with the virus. Spanish health authorities also confirmed that they had located a South African citizen who, on the same flight, had "brief contact" with the sick Dutch woman. She subsequently spent a week in Barcelona before returning to her home country. The woman has returned to South Africa and The epidemiological investigation conducted by the Ministry of Health confirmed that, during her stay in Spain, she had stayed alone in a hotel and "had no contact with other people."
