Madrid, May. 12 (SANA) Spain’s Health Ministry said Monday that a passenger evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship to Madrid tested positive for hantavirus while under quarantine, according to a ministry statement cited by Reuters.
The ministry said the patient showed no symptoms and remained in good condition. It added that 13 other people quarantined at the same military hospital tested negative for the virus.
The MV Hondius arrived Sunday at Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands to allow the evacuation of passengers and crew after hantavirus infections were detected aboard the vessel.
Spanish authorities said Monday that the final group of 28 passengers would leave the ship and continue to the Netherlands, where health officials in their home countries would monitor them.
Agence France-Presse quoted Spanish Health Minister Mónica García Gómez as saying on X that 28 of the 54 people still aboard the ship would continue the journey to the Netherlands along with the body of a German woman who died from the infection.
Spanish authorities said a total of 122 people would have been evacuated in less than 48 hours, in what Madrid described as an unprecedented operation. Three additional passengers had disembarked earlier in Cape Verde.
Authorities said strict evacuation measures remained in place to prevent any possible spread of the rare virus, for which there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Monday that seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus had been identified among cruise ship passengers.
A WHO spokesperson said the total number of reported cases rose to nine after French authorities confirmed that one of the repatriated passengers tested positive for the virus.
The organization added that three deaths linked to the outbreak had been reported so far, including a person believed to have been the first infected case before medical testing was conducted.
Hantavirus infections are rare and typically linked to contact with infected rodents. While the disease can be severe, it does not spread easily between people, according to the WHO.
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