ROME – Italy’s leading infectious disease facility announced Tuesday that medical staff will test biological samples from a quarantined individual who had contact with a hantavirus victim.
According to the ANSA news agency, the person under quarantine is a 25-year-old man from Italy’s southern Calabria region who was initially reported as hospitalized.
The individual shared a brief flight with a female passenger who subsequently succumbed to the virus. The woman was removed from the KLM aircraft before departure from Johannesburg.
While ANSA initially reported the man’s transfer to Rome’s Spallanzani hospital, medical officials later explained they are only receiving his biological specimens for laboratory analysis.
According to the World Health Organization, hantavirus spreads mainly through rodent contact but can occasionally transmit between humans. Initial symptoms resemble flu-like conditions including exhaustion and fever, appearing one to eight weeks following exposure.
Recent cases have emerged connected to the MV Hondius vessel, which arrived at Spain’s Canary Islands after completing a polar research voyage from Argentina.
The WHO has updated its confirmed case count for this outbreak to nine individuals. Officials warn additional cases may surface due to the virus’s extended incubation timeline, though they emphasize this situation differs significantly from a pandemic and bears no resemblance to COVID-19.
