Spain tests suspected hantavirus case in Alicante

MADRID, May 8 (Reuters) - ‌A 32-year-old ​woman ​in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante has symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection ‌and is being tested, Spanish health officials said ⁠on Friday.

The woman was a passenger on the same flight ‌as a patient who ‌died in Johannesburg after travelling on the MV Hondius cruise ship and contracting the virus, Secretary ​of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters.

Authorities have identified the Andes strain of hantavirus on ⁠the ship, a version that can spread from human to human in ​rare cases, typically only after close contact.

The woman has "mild respiratory symptoms" and is being ​transferred to a hospital in ‌the city of Alicante where she will be tested for the virus, with ⁠results expected 24 to 48 hours later, according to a statement on the regional health department's website.

Padilla said the ⁠woman, a resident of Alicante in the Valencia region, was ​sitting two rows behind the cruise ship passenger, but the contact between them "was brief" since the passenger had only been "on ‌board for a short time" during the flight.

Padilla added that Valencia's regional health ‌authorities were tracing the people the woman has been ⁠in contact with ‌over the past few ​days.

(Reporting by David Latona, Joan Faus; Editing by Aislinn Laing, Victoria Waldersee and Andrew ‌Heavens)

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