world
Twelve Radboudumc Staff in Precautionary Quarantine After Procedural Error With Hantavirus Patient
Twelve workers at Radboudumc university medical centre in Nijmegen were placed in six-week precautionary quarantine after following standard instead of stricter protocols with a hantavirus patient evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship. At least seven evacuees have tested positive for the virus and three people have died. The ship arrived in Rotterdam on Sunday evening for disinfection.
dutchreview.comAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Twelve Dutch hospital workers at the Radboudumc university medical centre in Nijmegen have been placed in precautionary quarantine after following an incorrect procedure with a hantavirus patient evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship. When taking the patient's blood, a standard procedure was followed rather than the stricter protocol required due to the nature of the virus.
The most recent international regulations were not followed when disposing of the patient's urine. The hospital workers will be in preventive quarantine for six weeks, even though the risk of infection is low.
"We regret that this has happened at our university medical center. We will carefully investigate the course of events to learn from this and to prevent it from happening in the future," said Bertine Lahuis, Chair of the Executive Board of Radboudumc.
Euronews reported that the MV Hondius cruise ship began its journey back to the Netherlands on Tuesday after its last passengers disembarked as part of a large-scale evacuation operation that began on Sunday.
The final cohort of 28 evacuees travelled on chartered buses to Tenerife South Airport and boarded two flights that landed in the Netherlands early on Tuesday. One plane carried 17 Filipinos, a Dutch national, a German, a British doctor and two epidemiologists. The evacuees disembarked from the air ambulance at Eindhoven airport wearing facemasks and clutching white bags of their belongings.
At least seven evacuees have tested positive for hantavirus and an eighth evacuee is listed as probable for hantavirus, according to the World Health Organisation. Three people died after the hantavirus was detected on board the MV Hondius. No vaccines or specific treatments exist for the hantavirus.
