The woman is in Sant Joan General Hospital in Alicante with mild respiratory symptoms and has been placed in a negative-pressure room as a preventive measure, according to major media reports. Samples have been sent to the National Center for Microbiology, with results expected within 24 to 48 hours. Meanwhile, a flight attendant in the Netherlands who was suspected of hantavirus infection has tested negative for the virus, according to major media reports.
The flight attendant was isolated in a hospital with mild symptoms, but tests on Friday morning showed she was not infected. The World Health Organization confirmed the negative test result. The flight attendant had contact with the 69-year-old woman who died of confirmed hantavirus in South Africa on April 26.
A flight attendant who had contact with the woman has been isolated in a hospital in the Netherlands with mild symptoms but no confirmed infection, according to major media reports. Argentine investigators are working on the theory that the first passengers to fall ill were infected when they visited a garbage dump for birdwatching before departure on the Hondius, where they may have come into contact with rodents carrying Andes virus, a type of hantavirus. The Dutch couple is believed to have also visited Chile and Uruguay before departure, according to major media reports.
The man fell ill on April 6 and died about a week later; his wife fell ill later and died in a hospital in South Africa. The woman boarded a plane to Amsterdam but was denied departure, and during that time she came into contact with the now-isolated flight attendant. The severely ill woman was brought onto the KLM flight in a wheelchair.
She spent an hour with other passengers on the plane before staff decided she was too sick to travel. The woman died the next day from the extremely deadly hantavirus, according to major media reports. A Danish flight passenger is being tested for hantavirus after brief contact with an infected person and showing flu-like symptoms, according to major media reports.