Hantavirus: negative test result for a contact of a suspected case at the Sacco Hospital in Milan

Milan, 19 May (LaPresse) – The hantavirus test carried out on a British tourist who was on the Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight has come back negative. Yesterday evening, the Ministry of Health announced in a statement that the British health authorities had reported the presence in Italy of a woman considered to be a contact of a hantavirus case. The young tourist was traced in Milan; she had been on board the KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, which the woman who was hospitalised in Johannesburg and subsequently died had boarded for a short time. The tourist, who was quickly traced following the report from the UK, was immediately taken into care by the Lombardy Region and underwent virological tests at the Sacco Hospital in Milan, where she will remain in quarantine for the period of medical observation. She is accompanied by a companion, who has also been taken into care in accordance with the prescribed procedures. Both have been tested and the results were negative.