The Italian Ministry of Health has activated "active surveillance" for four passengers who were on board a KLM flight bound for Rome, where a woman infected with hantavirus had boarded for a few minutes, who was later hospitalized in Johannesburg and died.
The four people, residents of Calabria, Campania, Tuscany and Veneto, who had been in contact with the deceased woman, have been identified by Italian authorities and have been forwarded to the relevant regions to begin monitoring "in the name of maximum caution".
Meanwhile, Spanish authorities have also identified a woman in Catalonia who had contact with the Dutch citizen aboard the cruise ship "Mv Hondius", where the hantavirus outbreak was recorded.
The Dutch passenger was taken off the KLM flight on April 25, before departure from Johannesburg to the Netherlands, due to her serious health condition. She died a day later in a hospital in South Africa.
According to data so far, the explosion on board the ship has caused three deaths and eight infected people, six of whom have been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
Spanish authorities also report that another woman from Alicante, who had been on the same flight as the Dutch victim, has been hospitalized with symptoms compatible with hantavirus.
Meanwhile, a South African citizen who had brief contact with the infected person during the flight and then spent a week in Barcelona has also been located. She has now returned to her country and is not showing symptoms of the virus.
