Florence woman in quarantine after hantavirus exposure

A woman living in Florence has been placed in precautionary quarantine after travelling on a KLM flight linked to a fatal hantavirus case involving a passenger from a cruise ship in South Africa. Italian health authorities said the risk of infection remains low, but regional and national health agencies have activated monitoring procedures as a precaution.

The case is part of an international health alert involving passengers who may have come into contact with a woman who had been aboard the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius. The woman was later hospitalised in Johannesburg, where she died after contracting hantavirus.

According to the Italian Health Ministry, four passengers currently in Italy were identified as having been on a connecting KLM flight to Rome on which the infected woman briefly boarded. Their details were transmitted to the regions responsible for monitoring them: Tuscany, Veneto, Campania and Calabria.

In Tuscany, regional authorities confirmed that one of the passengers is currently in Florence. The woman has been placed under precautionary quarantine while medical checks are carried out to determine whether she may have contracted the virus.

The Tuscany regional government said the exposure appears to have occurred during boarding operations and was neither prolonged nor close-range. Nevertheless, the region activated surveillance measures following instructions from the Health Ministry.

The monitoring period will last 45 days from the possible exposure date, identified as 27 April. Health authorities are also tracing the woman’s recent contacts and monitoring them for possible symptoms.

Gianni Nardone, director of prevention at the local health authority Asl Toscana Centro, said to the local newspapers that the risk was considered low because hantavirus transmission between humans generally requires prolonged and very close contact. He added that the Florence passenger had been seated several rows away from the infected traveller.

Despite the low level of risk, authorities said they chose to apply strict precautionary measures because some forms of hantavirus infection can be severe and potentially fatal.

The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control currently consider the overall risk for the general population to be low worldwide and very low in Europe, according to the Italian Health Ministry.

The four monitored passengers in Italy are reported to be asymptomatic. Similar surveillance measures have also been introduced in other countries connected to the case. Spanish authorities placed a woman in Catalonia under quarantine after she was identified as a contact of a Dutch patient infected with hantavirus. In the United Kingdom, British passengers and crew members from the MV Hondius are expected to undergo isolation measures after arriving from the Canary Islands.

Italian authorities have also sent an epidemiologist from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to assist onboard the cruise ship, where several suspected cases have been investigated.

Hantavirus infections are typically associated with exposure to rodents and their droppings. Human-to-human transmission is considered rare and has mainly been documented with specific strains found in parts of South America. Symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, fatigue and respiratory complications in severe cases.

(Cover photo by Fernando Zhiminaicela from Pixabay)

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