{"id":474,"date":"2026-05-12T13:15:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanitystories.pics\/?p=474"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:15:03","slug":"hantavirus-patient-in-critical-condition-after-doctors-dismissed-symptoms-as-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanitystories.pics\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus patient in critical condition after doctors dismissed symptoms as \u2018anxiety\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
World News<\/a><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
\n

A French woman who tested positive for\u00a0hantavirus<\/a>\u00a0after disembarking from the virus-stricken cruise ship is now in a critical condition after doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as anxiety.<\/p>\n

The passenger\u2019s condition started to deteriorate rapidly after she was finally able to leave the ill-fated MV Hondius vessel when it docked in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands on Sunday,\u00a0The Guardian reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The woman had initially developed flu-like symptoms on the luxury liner but appeared to be recovering \u2014 prompting doctors to speculate she was likely anxious or stressed amid the\u00a0deadly outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A3<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A second evacuation flight from Tenerife lands at Eindhoven Air Base in Eindhoven, Netherlands on May 12, 2026.ANP\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey were not thinking that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus. Why? Because what she was telling [them] was [that she had] an episode of coughing some days ago that had disappeared, and what she was having at that moment was kind of like stress or anxiety or nervousness. So it was not catalogued [as hantavirus],\u201d Spanish health minister Javier Padilla Bern\u00e1ldez.<\/p>\n

The woman, who was one of five French passengers who left the ship on Sunday, was flown to a hospital in Paris where her condition worsened overnight.<\/p>\n