Spanish authorities say a 32-year-old woman from Alicante has symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection and is being tested.
The woman was on board the same flight as a Dutch woman who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship and later died from the virus.
Authorities said the woman is displaying “mild respiratory symptoms” and has been placed in isolation in hospital.
Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla said the test results were expected within 24 hours.
He said the woman had been sitting two rows behind the Dutch passenger — the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak — who was briefly on a Netherlands-bound plane from Johannesburg on April 25, but was removed before take-off.
She later died in a Johannesburg hospital.
Flight attendant tests negative
A flight attendant from KLM who came into contact with the same infected passenger and later showed mild symptoms has tested negative, the WHO said Friday.
KLM said Dutch health authorities were contacting people on the flight “as a precaution.”
Three passengers aboard the Hondius cruise ship died after contracting what experts have identified as the Andes strain of the hantavirus — a version that can spread from human to human, but typically only after close contact.
Countries around the world are currently tracking passengers who were on the ship in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Third British infection suspected
Another suspected case of the virus was identified in a British national on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha on Friday.
The British health security agency did not disclose further details.
The Hondius made a stop at the remote island on April 15.
Two other British nationals who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus and are being treated in hospital in the Netherlands and South Africa.
No evidence of hantavirus in German case
A woman who was transferred to a hospital in the German city of Düsseldorf is showing no signs of a hantavirus infection.
The 65-year-old cruise ship passenger was picked up on Wednesday on the Atlantic Island of Cape Verde because she had been in close contact with another passenger who later died.
She was transferred to Düsseldorf for testing after being flown to the Netherlands.
The hospital said tests thus far had failed to detect the hantavirus, but that protective measures will remain in place because it can take “several weeks” for symptoms to appear.
Singapore residents test negative
Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents who were on the MV Hondius have tested negative for the virus.
The two men, aged 65 and 67, disembarked from the ship in St Helena and were on the same flight as a confirmed hantavirus case to Johannesburg on April 25.
Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency said they would be quarantined as a precaution for 30 days and will undergo further testing before being released.
