The infected Canadian citizen reportedly showed symptoms on Thursday, four days after the repatriation flight, so that at the time of the trip he was not “in the transmissibility period defined by national guidelines and available scientific evidence”.
The Canadian citizen confirmed with coronavirus infection, who traveled on the Hondius cruise, was repatriated on an aircraft with Portuguese crewbut there is “no evidence of secondary transmission associated with this flight”, announced the Directorate-General for Health this Sunday.
“So far, there is no evidence of secondary transmission associated with this repatriation flight, nor any indication of increased risk for the population in Portugal”, highlighted the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) in a statement.
Canada confirmed the existence of a case of hantavirus infection, in a person who traveled in and who was hospitalized on Thursday in the British Columbia region.
According to the DGS, this person was among the Canadian citizens who were repatriated from Tenerifein Spain, to Canada, on May 10, in an aircraft with 12 Portuguese crew members.
During the journey, passengers used respiratory masks FFP2/N95 e a crew wore surgical masks and glovesand in the end the plane was decontaminated, says the DGS.
According to the DGS, the infected Canadian citizen had symptoms on Thursday, four days after the repatriation flightso that, at the time of the trip, he was not “during the transmissibility period defined by national guidelines and available scientific evidence”.
A DGS eliminates increased risks for the Portuguese population, as “the Person-to-person transmission of Andes Hantavirus is considered rare” and occurs mainly “in situations of close, prolonged contact and exposure to secretions or body fluids”.
Since the outbreak caused by the Andean variant of hantavirus was declared by the World Health Organization on May 2, laboratory confirmations have been made. eight cases of infection and there were three deaths.
The WHO considers that the risk is moderate for former passengers and crew of the cruise ship, where the virus was first detected, and low for the rest of the world’s population.
A origin of this hantavirus outbreak is still unknownbut, according to the WHO, the first contamination must have occurred before the start of the expedition on April 1st, as the first passenger to die, a 70-year-old Dutchmanshowed symptoms on April 6th.
The period of Virus incubation ranges from one to six weeks and there is no vaccine or specific treatment against hantavirus, which can cause acute respiratory syndrome.
A fatality ratepercentage of sick people who die after contracting the infection, from this outbreak is, at this stage, 27%according to the WHO.
