Woman who tested positive for hantavirus had symptoms dismissed as anxiety
Topics: Health, France, Cruise ship
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: (Photo by Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Topics: Health, France, Cruise ship
A French woman who tested positive for Hantavirus after returning to France initially had her symptoms dismissed as anxiety, the Spanish Health minister has said.
The MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by a Hantavirus outbreak, docked in Tenerife on Monday, May 10, with almost 120 passengers and 23 crew members evacuated.
These included five French passengers, who were flown to a hospital in Paris. One of who is confirmed to have tested positive.
Three people including a German national and a Dutch couple have sadly died from the virus, with eight infections confirmed.
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The ship set sail from Southern Argentina on April 1, and just five days later, a 70-year-old Dutch man fell ill, later dying onboard. The World Health Organization later announced they were investigating a Hantavirus outbreak.
The virus is usually spread through contact with rodents, and spreading between humans can happen, although it is said to be rare.
Spanish health minister, Javier Padilla Bernáldez, said the French woman, whose symptoms were 'dismissed' had been suffering from flu-like symptoms onboard.
“They were not thinking that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus," she told the Guardian.
"Why? Because what she was telling [them] was [that she had] an episode of coughing some days ago that had disappeared, and what she was having at that moment was kind of like stress or anxiety or nervousness. So it was not catalogued [as hantavirus]."
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, later confirmed that the woman was now in ‘critical condition’ from the virus.
Adding, French health minister Stephanie Rist said the patient’s symptoms worsened over Sunday night, and they are now being treated in a specialized infectious diseases unit in Paris.
An American national has also tested positive for the virus since arriving home, and a Spanish national reportedly has a suspected case.
Each country is dealing with the virus differently as the citizens return home. In the USA, 16 of the 18 passengers are being screened at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the city of Omaha.
Another two who flew home in a biocontainment unit on the plane, are being screened at Emory University's Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center in Atlanta.
However, the Health and Human Services (HHS) say the risk to the public is very low.
The HHS have confirmed that those who have returned from the cruise will receive individual care plans, deciding whether they should self-isolate at home or remain in a facility.
These care plans will be based on factors including their condition and their living situation, the BBC reports.
Passengers who have returned to the UK have been told they must self isolate at home for 42 days after returning from medical checks at the hospital.