A Spanish passenger is sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands, Spain, May 10.The Associated Press/The Associated Press
Ontario’s ministry of health says it is now testing 10 asymptomatic people with connections to a hantavirus-stricken cruise, a shift from government remarks made earlier this week.
The province says the three “high-risk” travellers – two who were on the cruise and one who was on the same flight as a person who has since died of hantavirus – will stay in strict isolation regardless of their result.
However, a ministry spokesperson says the seven “low-risk” contacts can stop their recommended 45-day isolation if they test negative, while daily public health monitoring will continue.
Public health officials have described “low-risk” contacts as air passengers who were on the same flight as someone with hantavirus, but weren’t in close proximity to them.
The effectiveness of testing asymptomatic people for hantavirus has been raised several times over the past week. Health officials around the world are grappling with this question, given the long incubation period of the virus.
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Earlier this week, Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s health minister, said the guidance from the province’s top doctor was that it wasn’t appropriate at the time.
Dr. Joss Reimer, Canada’s chief public health officer, suggested testing asymptomatic people might give a false sense of security.
“If somebody is perhaps testing negative, but later could go on to develop hantavirus, I don’t want that individual to be taking their isolation requirements less seriously. So that’s the balance that we’re trying to strike in getting as much information as we can and is useful without giving people a false reassurance that might lead to unnecessary exposures,” Reimer said.
The World Health Organization says its international hantavirus case count is 10, as the previous tally had an inconclusive test in the U.S. that’s since been confirmed as negative. Three people have died.