A Spanish cruise passenger who was evacuated from the MV Hondius ship has tested positive for hantavirus weeks after the deadly outbreak killed three others on the luxury liner.
The latest case of the rodent-borne disease was detected while the infected traveler was quarantining under clinical surveillance with 13 other Spaniards aboard the hantavirus-ridden Dutch vessel at Gómez Ulla Hospital in Madrid, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.
The passengers have been in isolation since being evacuated on May 10.
Officials said the stricken patient was in “close contact” with an ill traveler on the doomed ship.
“A new positive hantavirus case has been confirmed via PCR in one of the individuals remaining in preventive quarantine at Gómez Ulla Hospital,” the health ministry said on X Monday.
“It corresponds to a close contact identified within the epidemiological follow-up activated after the initial detection of the outbreak.”
The patient – the second Spanish passenger to contract the deadly virus – was moved to a high-level isolation unit, where he will remain admitted under specialized medical supervision.
Health officials stressed that the case poses no risk to the public.
“Health authorities emphasize that the detection of the case has occurred within the already activated isolation and control system, so it does not alter the risk situation for the general population nor change the epidemiological response measures currently in place,” the ministry said in the post.
It was not immediately clear what condition the man is in after testing positive for the virus, which can lie dormant for up to eight weeks.
Hantavirus is usually spread through rodent droppings – but one rare strain, the Andes virus, can spread between people and carries a 40% mortality rate, and is blamed for the deadly cruise ship outbreak.
The weeks-long Atlantic cruise – which departed from Argentina on March 20 – spiraled into a nightmare when an elderly Dutch couple carried the Andes strain onboard after contracting it in Argentina last month.
The couple and a German passenger died, with the rampant virus putting dozens more at risk.
Eighteen Americans – including three New Yorkers – on the ill-fated vessel were flown back to the US and quarantined earlier this month, with one testing positive.
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