{"id":333800,"date":"2026-05-13T06:29:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=333800"},"modified":"2026-05-13T06:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:59:23","slug":"hantavirus-cruise-passenger-told-symptoms-were-just-anxiety-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/hantavirus-cruise-passenger-told-symptoms-were-just-anxiety-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus cruise passenger told symptoms were ‘just anxiety’ | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
The MV Hondius has only a couple of crew and medical staff onboard now (Picture: ANP\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spanish doctors told a girl who tested positive for hantavirus that it was \u2018probably just anxiety\u2019.<\/p>\n

The French national became sickened with the rare disease after being evacuated from the MV Hondius at Spain\u2019s Canary Islands on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Yet doctors from the Spanish foreign health service shrugged off her symptoms as as a consequence of stress or anxiety, Spain\u2019s health minister said.<\/p>\n

Javier Padilla Bern\u00e1ldez was quoted by The Guardian<\/a> as saying: \u2018They weren’t pondering that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus. <\/p>\n

\u2018Why? 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 type of like stress or anxiety or nervousness. <\/p>\n

\u2018So it was not catalogued [as hantavirus].\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the newest stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n

Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"LIVERPOOL,\t<\/div>
Not one of the British passengers has tested positive \u2013 they\u2019re now isolating at a hospital (Picture: Anadolu\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The World Health Organization said the lady was in \u2018very critical\u2019 condition.<\/p>\n

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control told Metro <\/strong>that health checks on board were conducted by medical doctors on the ship.<\/p>\n

A specialist in how diseases spread, called an epidemiologist, is on the ship but didn’t perform clinical examinations of passengers.<\/p>\n

Three people have died within the nearly six weeks for the reason that MV Hondius left Argentina for distant islands within the southern Atlantic Ocean. <\/p>\n

A minimum of seven other individuals who were on the ship have fallen unwell or tested positive.<\/p>\n

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters this morning that there’s \u2018no sign\u2019 that a hantavirus pandemic is on the cards.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an online
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbrowser that
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p><\/video>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
A Spanish cruise ship passenger was sprayed with disinfectant by officials (Picture: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But he cautioned that more hantavirus cases are likely, provided that symptoms can sometimes take as much as eight weeks to indicate.<\/p>\n

\u2018While they were still on the ship, even in the event that they were taking some preventive measures\u2026. we’d expect more cases,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

WHO defines a pandemic as \u2018the worldwide spread of a brand new disease\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tWhat’s hantavirus?\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
A cabin contained in the MV Hondius, through the voyage to Spain\u2019s port of Tenerife (Picture: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Hantavirus, sometimes called the \u2018rat virus\u2019, is a rare family of pathogens carried by rodents \u2013 there isn’t a vaccine or cure.<\/p>\n

The virus\u00a0spreads through contact with the faeces, urine and saliva of infected rodents.<\/p>\n

Early symptoms might be easily mistaken for the flu, corresponding to fever, chills or body aches, but can escalate to heart or lung failure.<\/p>\n

On the centre of the cruise outbreak is the Andes strain, which is endemic to South America, including Argentina, where the ship departed on April 1.<\/p>\n

Dr Stathis Giotis, a lecturer in life sciences on the University of Essex,\u00a0told Metro<\/strong> that the Andes hantavirus is the one known strain that might be spread from human to human, though cases of this are few and much between.<\/p>\n

\u2018It’s clearly a serious situation for those directly affected and it deserves careful public health follow-up, but there isn’t a evidence at present that this represents a broader epidemic threat,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Individuals who may get involved with rat droppings, like agricultural staff or people simply cleansing their sheds, are at high risk. <\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Black\t<\/div>
Rat droppings appear to be this and might carry hantavirus (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Twelve Dutch hospital staff on the Radboudumc university medical centre have been quarantined over fears they’ve been infected.<\/p>\n

The staff didn’t follow strict protocol when taking blood from a hantavirus patient evacuated from the ship, the hospital said yesterday. <\/p>\n

Staff also didn’t properly eliminate the patient\u2019s urine \u2013 the team can be in quarantine for six weeks.<\/p>\n

Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said <\/a>yesterday evening that 87 guests and 35 crew have been flown back home thus far. <\/p>\n

This includes 20 British holidaymakers now isolating at a Merseyside hospital.<\/p>\n

Twenty-seven people, mostly staff or medical professionals, are still on board the ship. <\/p>\n

The ship, which is on its solution to Rotterdam within the Netherlands, is currently sailing away from the Canary Islands, in response to tracker MarineTraffic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: PCOS has been renamed in a \u2018landmark\u2019 move to enhance women\u2019s health<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Passengers reveal lifetime of breakdowns, \u2018Covid rules\u2019, and the enjoyment of fruit on virus cruise ship<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: On-the-run inmate swanned around London and had pub lunch \u2018before fleeing UK\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\tComments<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n
\n
\n

News Updates<\/h4>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with day by day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MV Hondius has only a couple of crew and medical staff onboard now (Picture: ANP\/Shutterstock) Spanish doctors told a girl who tested positive for hantavirus that it was \u2018probably just anxiety\u2019. The French national became sickened with the rare disease after being evacuated from the MV Hondius at Spain\u2019s Canary Islands on Sunday. Yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[2960,7160,27338,395,4766,4075,13674,813],"class_list":["post-333800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-anxiety","tag-cruise","tag-hantavirus","tag-news","tag-passenger","tag-symptoms","tag-told","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333803,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333800\/revisions\/333803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}