Health lowers the scope of the hantavirus case detected in the US: the passenger of the MV Hondius gave a "not conclusive" PCR and another negative one

The Ministry of Health clarified this Monday that the passenger of the MV Hondius considered positive for hantavirus by the authorities of Estados Unidos had previously obtained a “non-conclusive” and another “negative” result in the PCR tests performed aboard the cruise ship. The analyses were supervised by specialists from the Centro Europeo para la Prevención y el Control de las Enfermedades and by Spanish epidemiologists deployed during the health management of the outbreak.

The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, explained in an interview on TVE that both the European experts and those from the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies initially considered that the passenger should not be classified as positive. “Furthermore, he had not shown any symptomatology,” Padilla stressed, insisting that the medical assessment carried out on the ship pointed to a case without clinical evidence compatible with hantavirus.

Despite this, the US authorities decided to apply a stricter criterion and treat the case as positive out of precaution. The passenger was evacuated separately from the rest of the travelers and transferred in an independent vessel along with another person who had presented mild symptoms, specifically a transient cough detected on May 6. According to Health, the ship's doctors interpreted that those symptoms could be related to anxiety or nervousness and did not consider them compatible with a probable case of hantavirus, although the United States equally opted to maintain reinforced isolation and sanitary control measures.