THE HAGUE – Twelve staff members at a Dutch hospital treating a hantavirus-positive evacuee from the MV Hondius cruise ship are in preventative quarantine after procedures were not followed correctly, the hospital said on May 11.
Procedural errors were made in taking blood and disposing of the patient’s urine, said the Radboud University Hospital in the east of the country in a statement.
“Due to these circumstances, 12 employees are going into preventive quarantine for six weeks as a precaution, even though the risk of infection is low,” added the hospital.
The first error came when drawing blood from the patient on arrival on May 7.
The standard procedure was used but “due to the nature of the virus, this blood should have been processed according to a stricter procedure,” said the hospital.
It then became clear on May 9 that stricter procedures were also not followed for disposing of the patient’s urine.
“Despite the fact that the chance of actual infection is very small, these measures have a significant impact on all those involved,” said Dr Bertine Lahuis, chair of the hospital board.
“We regret that this has happened at our university medical centre. We will carefully investigate the course of events to learn from this and to prevent it from happening in the future,” added Dr Lahuis.
The patient, who has not been named, was evacuated from the MV Hondius by air ambulance and admitted to Radboud hospital on May 7.
It was later confirmed that the patient had tested positive for hantavirus. AFP
