Madrid's Gómez Ulla hospital discharges last hantavirus patient

Hantavirus 2026

The rest of the people who were in quarantine at the hospital left on 7 June and there are no longer any people hospitalised in Spain

Cristián Ramón Cobos

The last hantavirus patient at the Gómez Ulla hospital in Madrid is now at home after being discharged. No Spaniards remain hospitalised due to the outbreak, according to sources at the Ministry of Health.

On 25 May, the hospital confirmed that the patient had caught the infection. He didn't have any symptoms at the beginning, but eventually developed a low-grade fever.

To be discharged, he had to remain symptom-free for at least three days and obtain two negative PCR tests taken 48 hours apart, as per the protocol.

This was the second hantavirus case among the 14 Spaniards (13 passengers and one crew member) who were travelling on the MV Hondius cruise ship. The first was a 70-year-old man, whose case was detected on 11 May. He was discharged on 4 June after recovering.

The 14 Spaniards were admitted to the Gómez Ulla hospital on 10 May, following the evacuation from the ship in Tenerife. Of them, 12 remained hospitalised as quarantined contacts. The other two, who tested positive at different times, were treated in the high-level isolation unit.

Home quarantine

Almost a month after their arrival at Gómez Ulla, the 12 hantavirus contact patients with consistent negative tests and no symptoms were discharged on 7 June. They have continued their quarantine at home.

The MV Hondius evacuated most of its passengers and crew in Tenerife, from where Spain deployed an unprecedented medical operation to repatriate everyone on board with the highest health and safety standards.

There were 143 people of 23 different nationalities aboard. Three of them died as a result of the virus.

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