THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Spanish passenger evacuated from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, Spain’s health ministry announced Tuesday, as the World Health Organization said it has now confirmed nine cases. Three people on the cruise died.
The passenger with the new confirmed case of hantavirus was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid, where 13 other Spanish nationals evacuated Sunday are also staying. They all tested negative for the virus.
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 of the World Health Organization, who was in Madrid, said 11 cases reported worldwide are all among passengers or crew of the MV Hondius cruise ship. Nine have been confirmed as infections of the Andes virus, a member of the hantavirus family. Two suspected hantavirus cases have been reported but not confirmed.
“These numbers have changed little over the past week thanks to the governments of multiple countries and partners,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general.
“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’s the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improve 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 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 medics. 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 toward 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 the 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 Monday night.
The “risk of infection is low,” the hospital said, but it 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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