A Spanish national in quarantine in a Madrid military hospital, who is among those evacuated from a cruise ship earlier this month, has tested positive for hantavirus, Spain's Health Ministry has said.
It is the second positive case among the 14 Spanish nationals who were evacuated to the Spanish island of Tenerife from luxury liner MV Hondius.
The vessel had been carrying around 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 2 May.
After confirming the infection, the Spanish national has been taken to an isolation unit at Gómez Ulla Hospital, the Health Ministry said on X.
It added that the fact that the case was detected among those already in quarantine "does not modify the risk situation" for the overall population.
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MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship, set sail on 1 April from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Cape Verde and on to Tenerife.
The WHO said on Saturday that 12 suspected and confirmed cases have been reported to the agency, including three deaths, and that no deaths have been reported since 2 May.
Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.
