Hantavirus begins spreading; Quarantine "day zero" postponed; the WHO responds

In Spain, 14 people are being held in isolation at the Gómez Ulla military hospital in Madrid, and the Commission decided that the ‘day zero’ for the start of quarantine should be May 10 rather than May 6, which, according to officials, should better correspond to the day passengers disembarked at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife.

The update comes after confirmation of the first hantavirus case among passengers aboard the cruise ship ‘MV Hondius.’

The new rules in Spain stipulate that the length of isolation for confirmed cases will depend on the patient’s medical condition. Individuals showing symptoms will remain hospitalized until full recovery, while asymptomatic patients may leave isolation after receiving a negative PCR test.

 

WHO expects the virus to spread

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that an increase in the number of hantavirus cases is expected due to the time that elapsed between the appearance of the first case and the confirmation of the infection.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Tedros said that the first case was recorded on April 6 aboard the cruise ship ‘MV Hondius,’ while the infection was only confirmed as contagious around April 24 or 25, Sky News reported.

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According to him, during that period passengers had numerous close contacts with one another, increasing the possibility of further spread of the virus despite the preventive measures introduced later. ‘We would expect more cases,’ Tedros said, adding that the incubation period for hantavirus lasts between six and eight weeks.

Ghebreyesus thanked Spain for the ‘compassion and solidarity’ it showed by accepting the cruise ship affected by the outbreak and called on authorities to follow WHO recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and continuous monitoring of high-risk contacts.

‘At this point there are no signs that we are witnessing the beginning of a larger outbreak, but the situation could, of course, change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it is possible that we will see more cases in the coming weeks,’ he said at a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday.

The virus is spreading across Europe

French health authorities announced that 22 identified contact cases linked to the hantavirus case are being ‘closely monitored,’ while four other passengers from the cruise ship where the outbreak emerged are under medical supervision in hospital.

France’s Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said that all identified contacts are feeling well and that no clinical symptoms have been recorded among the first hospitalized individuals, according to BFM TV.

The UK Health Security Agency announced that 10 people from remote South Atlantic islands linked to the outbreak on the cruise ship will be transferred to the United Kingdom if they develop the disease.

The group, from the British Overseas Territories of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, will be ‘transferred to the United Kingdom to complete self-isolation as a precaution’ following contact with infected individuals, officials said. It is not yet clear whether any of them are British citizens.

This comes as 20 British nationals from the ‘MV Hondius,’ along with one German resident of the United Kingdom and one Japanese passenger, who had been in isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, are preparing to leave the facility.

The last planes carrying passengers and crew members left the Canary Islands on Monday evening and arrived in the Netherlands early on Tuesday.

Dutch authorities said that all 26 passengers on the first evacuation flight tested negative for the virus. Two additional repatriation flights later landed in the Netherlands, carrying another 28 evacuees who will also undergo quarantine.

A Dutch hospital placed 12 staff members in quarantine on Tuesday after urine and blood samples from a hantavirus patient were handled without the required safety protocols being followed.