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The Canadian who tested positive for hantavirus after evacuating a cruise ship hit with an outbreak of the virus has recovered, British Columbia health officials say.
Four Canadians who were presumed to have been exposed to the virus aboard the MV Hondius have been isolating on Vancouver Island since they returned to Canada on May 10.
Only one of the four tested positive for the virus.
“We are happy to report that the person who became ill with hantavirus has recovered and was discharged from hospital late last week,” the Office of the Provincial Health Officer of B.C. confirmed to CBC News on Monday.
“The three other contacts continue to be in quarantine and are being followed daily by Island Health public health teams. All three remain asymptomatic. Their quarantine period continues to be 42 days, which is the maximum incubation period for hantavirus.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed a positive case of hantavirus through laboratory testing in a Canadian isolating in B.C. after leaving the cruise ship affected by a deadly outbreak. PHAC said a second person who travelled with the confirmed case tested negative for hantavirus, while the overall risk to the general population in Canada remains low.
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The province has previously described the travellers as a Vancouver Island resident in their 70s, another person from B.C. in their 50s who currently lives abroad, and a couple from Yukon in their 70s.
The patient who tested positive for the virus was one of the travellers from Yukon.
Cruise passengers have been repatriated to and are isolating in more than 20 countries after evacuating the ship.
Three people were killed in the outbreak, and epidemiologists confirmed at least 11 cases of hantavirus connected to the cruise ship.
Hantavirus cases and deaths are rare in Canada.
In North America, people are usually infected with the virus after inhaling contaminated residue from rodent droppings.
But health experts believe the Andes strain, which was involved in the MV Hondius outbreak, can be transmitted between people in rare cases that involve prolonged close contact.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, has previously said the Canadians isolating in the Island Health region had no known direct contact with the people who fell ill on the ship.
Health officials in Argentina, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, said last week they were expanding an investigation into the source of the incident.
Argentine authorities said reconstructing the chain of transmission was difficult work, and that it may never be possible to pinpoint exactly where the first known victims — a Dutch couple who died in April — contracted the virus before boarding the cruise in Ushuaia.
