Spain's Health Ministry has identified a possible hantavirus case in a woman living in Alicante. The patient, who traveled on a flight with one of the victims from the MV Hondius cruise outbreak, shows compatible symptoms and has been isolated.
The woman, a resident of Alicante, was identified through contact tracing on a commercial flight on April 25. That flight attempted to transport Dutch passenger Mirjam Schilperoord-Huisman to Amsterdam, who died that day in Johannesburg after her condition worsened.
The patient reported symptoms including cough and general malaise. She was initially isolated at home and transferred to the Hospital de Alicante, where she is in a negative-pressure room. A PCR test has been taken and will be sent to the National Microbiology Center, with results expected within 24 hours.
If the test is negative but symptoms persist, analyses will be repeated every 24 or 48 hours. In case of a positive confirmation, she will be moved to a High-Level Isolation and Treatment Unit at the Hospital Gómez Ulla in Madrid. Health authorities consider infection unlikely due to the brief contact on the plane.
Valencian health authorities have begun tracing the woman's contacts. Another passenger on the same flight, a South African citizen who stayed in Barcelona, remains asymptomatic in Johannesburg.
