Sociedad

For more than 30 years, hantavirus has been present in Chile, the second country with the most infections after Argentina. In 2025, 44 cases were reported and this year there are 39 accumulated, with 13 deaths. Ricardo Fritz Garrido (Concepción, Chile, 1978), pulmonologist at the National Thorax Institute of Chile, the national reference center for this virus and where all patients who develop cardiopulmonary syndrome from hantavirus, the most severe form of the infection, are treated, is one of the main specialists and leads the ECMO teams (extracorporeal respiration for critical patients) at the center.

No agreement and a new meeting next Tuesday. The sectoral table meeting between the Minister of Education and Vocational Training of the Generalitat, Esther Niubó, and the unions -Ustec·Stes, Aspepc·Sps, CC.OO. Educació, CGT Ensenyament, and UGT, with Intersindical added- ended without agreement but with the commitment to resume talks next Tuesday. The meeting was supposed to address issues such as resources for inclusive schooling and teachers’ salaries.

If the Lefebvrians go ahead with the ordination of new bishops, they will incur a charge of schism. The dialogue between the Vatican and the so-called Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X has reached a point of rupture that is hardly reversible

An 18-year-old young man, Mäel Le Lagadec, from the French department of Tarn-et-Garonne, has posted a video on the Internet in which he details the ascent to Aneto to place a cross, which he carved himself, after the disappearance of the original piece, placed at the summit in 1951 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC). The news was reported by the French newspaper La Dépêche, which details that the young man made the cross from walnut wood and inscribed his initials on it.

The health status of the Spanish citizen with hantavirus who is admitted to the Gómez Ulla hospital remains stable. This description is considered by experts as something “positive,” because it reveals that the 70-year-old passenger from the Hondius is responding to the care provided by the medical team treating him. And indeed, once symptoms appear (fever, stomach problems, respiratory issues…), deterioration is rapid in some of the infected. In this case, the patient, who presented low-grade fever and respiratory dysfunctions, has responded to the oxygen he is receiving, health sources indicate.

Twelve employees of the Radboudumc university hospital in Nijmegen, in the eastern Netherlands, have been placed under preventive quarantine for six weeks after potentially being exposed to the hantavirus while treating an infected patient from the Hondius cruise ship.

Unexpected turn at the start this Monday of the long-awaited trial for the alleged corruption scheme surrounding the payment of invoices during the projection and construction of the new Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus (Baix Camp), after fifteen years of judicial investigation. Two of the main accused, Josep Prat, then general director of the municipal holding Innova de Reus and former president of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), and the architect Jorge Batesteza have reached a plea agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office after admitting to the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, and document falsification, according to the defense lawyer of Josep Prat who reported this on the first day of the trial.

There are situations that cry out to heaven. And Pepe Espino’s (Barcelona, 54 years old) is one of them. With stage IV prostate cancer and metastases in bones, lungs, and soft tissues, the Institut Català d’Avaluacions Mèdiques (ICAM) discharged him to return to work after being on sick leave for two and a half years. Hence, the Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS) denied him permanent disability. All this despite having reports from his oncologist at the Clínic hospital detailing that he is undergoing palliative hormonal treatment whose symptoms “prevent him from performing any work activity.” In February, this newspaper reported on the case. And now, fortunately, the ICAM has rectified, and Pepe has already received the first payment from the INSS of his disability pension.

The protests in schools do not subside. This Tuesday marks the start of the first of 16 planned educational strikes in the public sector by the unions. Many are local, corresponding to educational territorial zones, but today’s, May 12, the one on the 27th of the same month, and the one on June 5 will be for all of Catalonia. In practice, each center can strike for five days in these remaining 40 days to finish the school year.

The United Kingdom Army has carried out an air operation to assist one of the passengers of the Hondius residing in Tristan da Cunha, a British territory in the South Atlantic with 221 inhabitants. The island lacks an airport and upon hearing that a passenger from the cruise with hantavirus was in the territory and showed symptoms compatible with the disease, the Army sprang into action.