Health confirms the Spanish person's contagion with hantavirus symptoms and rules out new cases for now

MadridThe Ministry of Health confirmed this Tuesday morning the hantavirus contagion of the Spanish passenger of the Hondius. On Monday, this same person had already tested provisionally positive and a second microbiological test has been performed to confirm. As for the rest of the passengers, a total of thirteen, so far all have tested negative in a second test, the Spanish government underlines in a brief statement.

The Spanish citizen with the confirmed contagion is isolated in the Gómez Ulla Hospital in Madrid and tonight has presented "fever and slight desaturation, although at the present time he is stable and without evident clinical worsening", according to sources from the ministry. The protocol established by the health authorities indicates that he must now be transferred to a High-Level Isolation and Treatment Unit (Uatan), specialized in the care of infectious diseases.

The rest of the Spanish passengers have tested negative in the microbiological tests. All of them —the affected person and the other 13 cruise passengers— have been admitted since Sunday afternoon to the military hospital center of Torrejón de Ardoz, in isolated rooms with negative pressure. According to the health authorities, all of them must undergo a mandatory 42-day quarantine; this means that, at a minimum, they will be there until June 17.

WHO: "We have to expect more contagions"

Following the trend of recent days, the World Health Organization (WHO) has wanted to send a new message of reassurance about the spread of hantavirus, while also anticipating that it is foreseeable that more cases will appear among the ship's passengers in the coming days. The reason: the long incubation period of the disease, which can last six to eight weeks.

The Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, insisted this Friday that "there will surely be more cases," but ruled out that this would translate into a "major outbreak" of the virus. "The first case was reported on April 6, but from when we received [at the WHO] the report until the contagion was confirmed, there were many interactions between passengers. [...] The incubation period is between six and eight weeks, and since these interactions occurred [before measures were taken], we have to expect more contagions," Adhanom detailed in a joint appearance with the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, from Moncloa.

For the WHO, the key now is the monitoring and protection measures that the passengers' countries of origin implement, which are "responsible," in Adhanom's words, for ensuring it is done with guarantees and safety. In any case, considering that all suspected cases are isolated, and the rest of the people are undergoing quarantine under medical supervision, "right now there is nothing to suggest that there could be a large outbreak," the director of the health organization reiterated. "The risk to global health is low," he stated. Adhanom also explained that all passengers who disembarked from the cruise have been located. "Even those who were in the most remote places," he said.

"Successful" operation

Tedros Adhanom and Pedro Sánchez met this Tuesday morning after the evacuation operation of passengers and crew on the island of Tenerife of the cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by hantavirus. A operation that both have defined as "successful". "We received a call for help. Why would we have refused to help? [...] Why should we not protect our compatriots?", Sánchez asked at a press conference, while he reproached those who "have remained silent" and "have looked the other way".

The head of the Spanish executive defended the reception of the ship by the State and thanked "the work of the more than 400 professionals who have participated". "We will continue to closely monitor the evolution of the passengers. [...] So far there have been zero incidents", he remarked. Sánchez also took the opportunity to defend "transparency" regarding information, especially with the Canary Islands government after it showed its reluctance to receive the ship.

Adhanom also once again thanked the "solidarity" of the State and the citizens of the Canary Islands in particular. "I would like to thank Mr. [Pedro] Sánchez and his government for Spain's remarkable leadership and collaboration in the last week", he said, and stated that it would have been "inhumane" for the passengers to undergo quarantine on the ship. The Director-General of the WHO explained that they asked the State to get involved in the reception of the ship after verifying that Cape Verde "did not have the capacity" to do so.