A flight attendant has been hospitalized with a suspected hantavirus infection after reportedly coming into contact with one of the ill MV Hondius cruise ship passengers who later died.
The KLM stewardess, who has not been identified, was placed in isolation at a hospital in Amsterdam late Wednesday, May 6, to undergo testing, according to Dutch news outlet RTL Nieuws.
She had briefly come into contact with an elderly Dutch passenger who was deemed too sick to fly and who then collapsed at the airport and subsequently died.
The flight attendant was picked up from her home in the Dutch city of Haarlem by medical crews after experiencing mild symptoms, health officials said.
The KLM staffer had come into contact with the Dutch woman who had been evacuated from the ship after her husband, aged 70, died on board amid the outbreak.
The sick 69-year-old woman had been transferred from the ship to Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 25 — roughly two weeks after her husband’s death — so she could return to the Netherlands for treatment.
She boarded the KLM flight for a “short time” but was ultimately removed due to her ailing condition, according to the airline.
“Due to the passenger’s medical condition at the time, the crew decided not to allow the passenger to travel on the flight,” a KLM spokesperson said.
The elderly woman collapsed at the airport and died at a nearby hospital a day later.
Those on board the KLM flight, which later took off as planned, are being notified by Dutch health authorities, the airline said.
Three people, the Dutch couple and a German national, have already died in the outbreak on the MV Hondius.
