WHO Confirms KLM Flight Attendant Tests Negative for Hantavirus After Cruise Ship Exposure Scare

(KLM flight. photo by the economic times)

The WHO reported on Friday that a flight attendant for the Dutch carrier KLM who was hospitalized to a hospital in Amsterdam due to minor hantavirus symptoms had tested negative for the virus.

After allegedly coming into contact with a sick cruise ship passenger who was removed from a KLM aircraft and subsequently died from the virus in South Africa, the flight attendant was tested.

When asked about the test results, a World Health Organization spokesperson told AFP that the UN health agency had "received notification through our IHR (International Health Regulations) focal point that she tested negative."

The passenger, who was the widow of the first person to die in the hantavirus epidemic on the MV Hondius cruise ship, was evacuated before takeoff on a jet that was headed from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, according to a statement released by KLM on Wednesday.

The Dutch woman tested positive for hantavirus after passing away in a Johannesburg hospital on April 26.

She is one of three victims of the epidemic on the cruise ship that sailed to Cape Verde from Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1.

According to KLM, "the crew decided not to allow the passenger to travel on the flight due to the passenger's medical condition at the time."

It further stated, "The flight departed for the Netherlands after the passenger was removed from the aircraft."

According to a statement from KLM, Dutch health authorities are reaching out to passengers "as a precaution."

In Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa, individuals who are suspected of having the virus are receiving treatment or being isolated.