Dutch airline flight attendant tested negative for hantavirus — WHO

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A flight attendant for the Dutch airline KLM who showed mild symptoms of hantavirus and was admitted to hospital in Amsterdam has tested negative for the virus, the WHO said Friday.

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The flight attendant was tested after she reportedly came into contact with a sickened cruise ship passenger who was taken off a KLM plane and later died of the virus in South Africa.

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Asked about the test result, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation told AFP that the UN health agency had “received notification through our IHR (International Health Regulations) focal point that she tested negative”.

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KLM said on Wednesday that the passenger — the wife of the first person to die in the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship – had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.

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The Dutch woman died on April 26 in a Johannesburg hospital and later tested positive for hantavirus.

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She is among three people who have died in the outbreak on the cruise ship, which left from Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1, headed for Cape Verde.

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“Due to the passenger’s medical condition at the time, the crew decided not to allow the passenger to travel on the flight,” KLM said.

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“After the passenger was removed from the aircraft, the flight departed for the Netherlands,” it added.

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Dutch health authorities are contacting people on the flight “as a precaution”, KLM said in its statement.

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People fearing or known to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.

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AFP

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