A hospital in the Netherlands treating a patient with hantavirus has quarantined 12 of its staff – a preventative measure.
The University Medical Centre in the city of Nijmegen linked the decision for the six-week quarantine to blood and urine tests being carried out without following updated and stricter protocols.
“We will scrutinise the course of events in order to draw conclusions and prevent similar cases in the future,” said Bertine Laheis, chairwoman of the hospital’s board of directors. At the same time, the hospital noted that the risk of infection is very low and patient care continues without interruption.
On May 7, a passenger from the cruise ship Hondius was admitted to the Radboudumc Medical Centre in Nijmegen after an outbreak of hantavirus.
Two planes carrying 28 passengers landed at Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands shortly after midnight on Tuesday and were evacuated among other tourists from the MV Hondius. There were eight Dutch nationals on board the planes. Earlier, authorities said the remaining passengers of different nationalities would continue their journey to their home countries.
Three people have died on the Hondius ship since the outbreak began: a Dutch couple and a German national.
On Monday, the World Health Organisation reported seven confirmed cases of the Andes hantavirus strain and two probable cases-one person died before the test and one on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, where tests were unavailable.
Among the confirmed cases is a French passenger who tested positive after the ship docked in the Canary Islands, Tenerife, on Sunday. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Monday that the passenger’s condition was stable after a brief deterioration.
People on the cruise ship were evacuated from Tenerife by aircraft to different countries. According to the latest information, all passengers have left the ship. The Hondius left for the Netherlands late Monday night with 25 crew members, as well as a doctor and a nurse. They are expected to arrive in the Netherlands by 17 May, said Oceanwide Expeditions, the company that owns the ship.
Earlier, the WHO did not rule out that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus could have occurred on board the MV Hondius. The virus is usually transmitted by rodents, but on 5 May WHO said that in this case it could have spread through “very close contacts” on board the cruise liner. Experts say such transmission is rare and the risk to the public is low.
There are several varieties of hantaviruses. The infection can cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. Both diseases are considered dangerous and there is currently no vaccine for hantavirus.
In the Netherlands, 12 hospital workers have been quarantined because of hantavirus