UPDATES WITH SPANISH HEALTH MINISTRY REMARKS; ADDS TO DECK
By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that a flight attendant tested negative after direct contact with a woman who succumbed to the virus, easing concerns about wider transmission.
The comments came amid growing concern over a hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius, where several infections and three deaths have been reported.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said the Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to spread between humans, requires extremely close and prolonged contact for transmission.
Lindmeier said a flight attendant who assisted a woman shortly before she died from the virus later tested negative, adding: 'This should convince nearly everybody now that this is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who's really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low.'
According to Dutch media reports, the flight attendant assisted the only infected passenger who later died from the virus. The woman had been due to board a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam but was denied boarding because of her condition.
Lindmeier said such cases demonstrate that hantavirus transmission is far more limited than viruses such as COVID-19 or measles.
'Close contact means you have to be basically in your face,' he said, explaining that infection would likely require exposure to respiratory droplets or bodily fluids.
'This is not a new COVID,' he stressed, adding that even people sharing cabins with infected individuals had in some cases tested negative.
Regarding the ship's arrival in the Canary Islands, the spokesperson said he could not provide an exact timeline.
However, he said WHO understood that the vessel had been waiting for two medical doctors from the Netherlands to board the ship. The doctors, together with a WHO expert already on board, are expected to accompany the vessel to the islands, he added.
- Protocol for passengers linked to hantavirus outbreak approved
Spain has approved a nationwide health protocol for passengers linked to a hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship Hondius, while also isolating a possible case connected to a flight carrying an infected passenger, the country's secretary of state for health said Friday.
Speaking at a press briefing, Javier Padilla Bernaldez said the protocol was unanimously approved by Spain's regional governments through the Public Health Commission.
Under the protocol, contacts of confirmed or suspected cases will be transferred to Madrid's Gomez Ulla Central Defense Hospital, where they will undergo a PCR test upon arrival and another seven days later. Authorities will also conduct active surveillance, including twice-daily temperature checks and repeated symptom monitoring.
If a person develops symptoms such as fever, they will be reclassified as a suspected case and moved to isolation for further testing, including blood, serum and respiratory samples, Padilla said.
He added that psychological support would also be provided to affected passengers, with Spain's mental health commissioner coordinating assistance with hospital staff.
Padilla also confirmed that Spain was monitoring a possible hantavirus case linked to a commercial flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam involving a cruise passenger who later died from the virus.
According to Padilla, international contact tracing protocols identified two passengers whose final destination was Spain. One later reported coughing and general malaise while staying at a family home in Alicante and was transferred to hospital as a precaution.
The patient remains isolated while PCR tests are analyzed by Spain's National Center for Microbiology, with results expected within 24 hours.
The patient under observation in Alicante had been seated two rows behind the infected traveler and had only brief contact with her, which is why authorities consider a positive result 'quite unlikely,' Padilla said.
Another passenger on the flight, a South African citizen traveling to Spain, flew to Barcelona and stayed there for a week before returning to Johannesburg, Spanish health authorities said.
