A second Spaniard who disembarked from a cruise ship in the Canary Islands earlier this month has tested positive for the virus while in quarantine, Spanish health officials said Monday. File Photo by Elton Monteiro/EPA
May 26 (UPI) -- A Spanish national who was aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has tested positive for the virus, Spanish health officials said, apparently increasing the number of confirmed and probable cases linked to the outbreak to 13.
The unidentified patient was among the 14 Spanish nationals who disembarked from the vessel in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on the morning of May 10, after the hantavirus cluster was identified earlier that month. Three of the cases have died.
Spain's Ministry of Health said the patient was confirmed positive while in preventive quarantine at Gomez Ulla Hospital in Madrid, where the individual has been under clinical surveillance and isolation since disembarking from the vessel.
"The positive case was detected during the periodic diagnostic checks carried out on the contacts under follow-up," the ministry said in a social media statement.
