Canadian national health agency confirms 1 positive hantavirus test
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canada’s national health agency confirmed Sunday that one of four Canadians who returned home from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak tested positive for the virus.
The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test a day after British Columbia’s provincial public health officer said the person had received a “presumptive positive” result but that further testing would be done at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
“The sample of an individual was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the national agency said in a press release.
A second person who was a traveling companion of the confirmed case was confirmed negative, the statement said. The two people, a couple in their sixties from the Yukon, are hospitalized in Victoria.
The four Canadian cruise lines returned to British Columbia last Sunday. Besides the couple, there was a person in their 60s from Vancouver Island and a person from British Columbia in their 50s who lives abroad.
All are isolated.
Three people have died since the hantavirus outbreak began on the MV Hondius cruise ship. The Canadian patient is the 10th person on the ship to test positive.
Among the three people who died was a Dutch couple who health authorities say were first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.
Canada’s public health agency said it is taking a precautionary approach to ensure citizens are protected.
“The overall risk to the general population of Canada from the Andean hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship remains low at this time,” the statement said. “All confirmed cases to date have involved passengers or crew members of the cruise ship MV Hondius.”
The agency said it had provided information about the positive case to the World Health Organization and would share information to support the ongoing global investigation into the outbreak.
