Hantavirus cruise passenger told symptoms were ‘just anxiety’ before positive test

The MV Hondius has only a few crew and medical workers onboard now (Picture: ANP/Shutterstock)

Spanish doctors told a woman who tested positive for hantavirus that it was ‘probably just anxiety’.

The French national became sickened with the rare disease after being evacuated from the MV Hondius at Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday.

Yet doctors from the Spanish foreign health service shrugged off her symptoms as due to stress or anxiety, Spain’s health minister said.

Javier Padilla Bernáldez was quoted by The Guardian as saying: ‘They were not thinking that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus.

‘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].’

None of the British passengers has tested positive – they’re now isolating at a hospital (Picture: Anadolu/Getty Images)

The World Health Organization said the woman was in ‘very critical’ condition.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control told Metro that health checks on board were conducted by medical doctors on the ship.

A specialist in how diseases spread, called an epidemiologist, is on the ship but did not carry out clinical examinations of passengers.

Three people have died in the nearly six weeks since the MV Hondius left Argentina for remote islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

At least seven other people who were on the ship have fallen ill or tested positive.

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters this morning that there is ‘no sign’ that a hantavirus pandemic is on the cards.

A Spanish cruise ship passenger was sprayed with disinfectant by officials (Picture: AP)

But he cautioned that more hantavirus cases are likely, given that symptoms can sometimes take up to eight weeks to show.

‘While they were still on the ship, even if they were taking some preventive measures…. we would expect more cases,’ he added.

WHO defines a pandemic as ‘the worldwide spread of a new disease’.

Twelve Dutch hospital workers at the Radboudumc university medical centre have been quarantined over fears they have been infected.

The staff did not follow strict protocol when taking blood from a hantavirus patient evacuated from the ship, the hospital said yesterday.

Staff also did not properly dispose of the patient’s urine – the team will be in quarantine for six weeks.

Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said yesterday evening that 87 guests and 35 crew have been flown back home so far.

This includes 20 British holidaymakers now isolating at a Merseyside hospital.

Twenty-seven people, mostly workers or medical professionals, are still on board the ship.

The ship, which is on its way to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, is currently sailing away from the Canary Islands, according to tracker MarineTraffic.

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