A woman, considered the first contact in Catalonia of a fatal victim of the ‘Hondius’ hantavirus, will remain in quarantine at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona for between three and six weeks. She is a resident of Barcelona who coincided for a few minutes, on April 25, on the plane covering the Johannesburg-Amsterdam route with the passenger from the cruise ship who ended up dying in the South African capital. She is around 40 years old, sources from the Departament de Salut told this newspaper.
Health authorities are focusing the investigation precisely on the passengers of that flight who may have been in contact with the wife of the first deceased on board the ‘Hondius’ due to the hantavirus and who ended up getting off the aircraft due to worsening symptoms.
The woman remains asymptomatic, although being considered a contact has forced all necessary health protocols to be activated. Like the other woman who does show symptoms and is hospitalized in Alicante, the Barcelona resident was two or three rows behind the Dutch woman from the ‘Hondius’ after a seat change. Her admission is expected this morning.
The Barcelona resident was two or three rows behind the Dutch victim of the ‘Hondius’ on the plane to Amsterdam
The hospital’s care director, Antoni Castells, specified that this person will remain isolated “in a single room” at the Clínic and will be attended by specialized healthcare personnel for this type of case. It is worth remembering that the Hospital Clínic has an isolation unit – smaller than that of the Gómez Ulla hospital – which was created in 2014 for Ebola and is prepared for hantavirus. In these specialized facilities, there is a negative pressure box, which serves to contain virus contaminants and prevent their spread.
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The woman will be subjected to quarantine, considering that the virus incubation period is between three and six weeks. Upon arrival, Castells explained, she will be examined and a PCR test will be done on blood and saliva. If this test is negative, which is most likely, it will be repeated after seven days. PCR results are obtained in about twenty-four hours. The Clínic care director wanted to convey, in any case, a message of reassurance.
On that same plane covering the Johannesburg-Amsterdam route, another woman with a South African passport was traveling, who spent a week in Barcelona and is already in her country and remains asymptomatic. The Departament de Salut emphasized that this woman “had not had close contacts with anyone in the Catalan capital and that her stay in the city corresponded with the non-infectious incubation period.”
The justice system validates the quarantine
An on-duty judge has judicially ratified, at the request of the State Attorney General’s Office, the quarantine. As has been made public this Saturday, the justice system validates the measures that health authorities have considered urgent and necessary for public health and that have been adopted, highlighting among them the quarantine to which Spaniards affected by the hantavirus outbreak on the ‘MV Hondius’ ship from Ushuaia (Argentina) must submit.
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